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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



A HISTORY 

OF THE 

GREAT MINNESOTA 

FOREST FIRES, 

Sandstone, Mission Creek, 

Hinckley, 
Pokegama, Skunk Lake. 



. . BY 
ELTON T. BF 



ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 

BY 



CARL C. BROWN. fro-G-O 3U 



BROWN BROS. PUBLISHERS, 

ST. PAUL, MINN. 






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COPYRIGHTED 1894 
BY 

BROWN BROS. 

St. Paul,, Mink 



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kCAll^ 



7* TRIBUTE. 

By the Author. 

Gone from the haunts, where they loved and they lingered, 
Gone from the paths that their feet loved to roam, 
Bereft are the friends that revered and that mingled 
Daily with those whom the fire has called home. 

Men stricken down in the bloom of their man-hood,- 
Women, whose hearts were proved true as steel, 
Children, whose eyes had brought light to the household, 
Suffered and died, still mute with appeal. 

There were heroes, whose story will ne'er be related, 
There were heroines too, who will e'er be unsung, 
Self-sacrinee truly, of all attribute noble, 
Thy name from the top of the peak should be flung. 

They are gone, leaving naught but the ashes behind them, 
They are gone, yet we can but rejoice at their gain, 
Their trials are all over, no ill can betide them; 
While we must work on, till we meet them again. 



. . . PREFACE . . . 

IN launching this little volume upon the turbulent sea of an 
existence which may or may not prove altogether satisfac- 
tory, the author feels called upon to state that in this work 
it is not his aim or desire to make an especially interesting and 
readable volume, but more particularly to chronicle a few facts 
in as terse a manner as may be relative to, he thinks without 
exception, the most horrible calamity which has befallen any 
portion of the human race in modern times. He desires that 
what facts he here presents may be absolutely authentic in 
every detail, and his purpose in giving this work to the public 
is to place in a concise and readable form a full account of the 
fire in its awful voracity together with a description of the 
country over which it passed, and enough personal experiences 
to give the reader some small idea of the excruciating suffering 
of the survivors. Also the efforts of a generous people to 
alleviate their suffering, as well as the heroic efforts of those 
upon whose courage and strength of character rested the lives 
of many hundred human beings. Pen cannot picture and tongue 
cannot tell the whole story. Young men will grow gray and 
their children gray and still history will hold no parallel to the 
Hinckley Forest Fires. The Johnstown Tragedy, so-called 
pales into insignificance beside it, as to the area affected and 
the amount of property destroyed, if not as to loss of life ; and 
let us hope and pray that from this time on we may be de- 
livered from so terrible an ordeal as has just been undergone 
by the good people of Kanabec, Pine and Aitkin Counties in 
Minnesota and Douglas, Burnett and adjoining Counties in 
Wisconsin. 



CONTENTS, 

Chapteu. Page, 

I The Surrounding Counto- 5 

II The Fire , 15 

III The Emergency Train 29 

IV Skunk Lake 41 

V The Gravel Pit. The River. The Marsh 52 

VI Sandstone, Partridge, Sandstone June , Pokegama.. 

and Mission Creek 61 

VII The Fire in Wisconsin 73 

VIII AfterTheFire 86 

IX Systematic Relief 100 

X The Relief at Duluth 114 

XI Other Relief Measures 128 

XII Root's Own Story : 139 

XIII Experiences of Hon. C. D. O'Brien and Others 153 

XIV Personal Experiences 171 

XV More Experiences 184 

XVI Another Story— Some Pertinent Facts 198 

XV II Retrospective— A General Survey 218 

KPPENDIX. 



THE HISTORY 

OF THE 

GREAT MINNESOTA FOREST FIRES, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 



ven the most casual ob- 
server in passing through 
on the line of the St. Paul 
& Duluth Ry. between St. 
Paul and Duluth could 
not fail to be impressed 
with almost a sense of 
wonder at the magnitude 
and extent of the lumber 
interests in the adjoining 
country. Lumber on all 
sides; every station had its mill and every farm- 
house its rods of piled cord-wood, posts or piling 
as the case might be or as the industrious owner 
might see fit to get out. Gigantic pines rose 
straight as an arrow from 100 to 150 feet in the 




6 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 

air, standing side by side, so close that the clump 
of branches at their tops inter-locked one with the 
other, making a canopy so dense and so complete 
that the sun was dismayed in its attempt to pierce 
its shadows and its noon-day brightness only 
lightened the shade to a dusky twilight. As far as 
the eye could reach on all sides were forests, or the 
stumpage where they had been cleared away and 
in lieu of them had grown little homes and farm- 
houses of more portentious proportions, nestled in 
among the pines like islands in an inland sea, 
where some voyager more venturous than the rest 
had plighted his faith and built his cot with the 
hope and prayer that the land he toiled to clear 
might yield at least a living if not a livelihood. 
And for the most part, fortune seemed to smile on 
these dwellers in the pines. Mills had sprung up, 
railroads come in, wages had been good and work 
plenty all the year round. Lumber was a staple 
product and here was an almost inexhaustible ex- 
panse of the finest timber only waiting the axe and 
the saw to convert it into money or its equivalent. 
Is it any "wonder that the great lumber companies 
looked upon this section as the reservoir of their ex- 
istence, and that they appreciated its value and 
were not slow in profiting by it? 

Thousands of men were gathered from our North- 
western cities every year and sent to work in the 
woods in this section for the winter, and millions 



THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 7 

of feet of logs were banked ready for the drive every 
spring. Hundreds of men were employed in the 
saw-mills converting these logs into lumber all 
through the summer season, so that the Pine 
county agriculturalist was given the very best of 
markets, i. e. the home market, for everything he 
could raise and was paid a good price for it, too. 

The dairy interests of the section were of no 
small importance. The underbrush in the woods 
made excellent pasturage and a large proportion 
of the Duluth and Superior milk supply was 
gathered from this section. A special milk train 
so-c«lled being run into these sections on the Du- 
luth road every morning, and aside from the milk 
much of the butter and other dairy products for 
the supply of the Duluth markets came from this 
region. As is the case with most of our rural 
districts, the people of thic, section were made up of 
a heterogeneous mass of humanity gathered to- 
gether from the four corners of the Earth. Former 
residents of the Scandinavian Peninsular were per- 
haps in the majority with a goodly sprinkling of 
the subjects of the German Emperor, whose thrifty 
neat looking log cabins stood out in sharp con- 
trast to the more dilapidated habitations of their 
less industrious neighbors. Aside from the lumber 
camps were the farmers who ranged from the poor 
squatter with an acre or two of potatoes which he 
had planted between the stumps, his sturdy wife 



38 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 

and abundant family, his cow, his pig and his 
shack, to the farmer who would tell you he came 
herein the fall of '68 and who by dint of hard work 
and watching the pennies had built a very pleasant 
little home about him, and was preparing to spend 
his old age with comparative ease and comfort. 

And so they dwell secure m their houses fearing 
nothing, never dreaming that so awful a calamity 
as befell them was possible, or that they stood in 
any danger whatever from the source which was 
destined to wreak such havoc and spread such dire 
desolation in the lap of prosperity and plenty. 
Forest fires had been frequent and terrible, it is 
true, considerable damage to young trees especially 
had been done every fall by forest fires, but they 
had for the most part been easily checked and no 
one apprehended that the season of '94 would dif- 
fer in this respect from that of '93 or any of the 
other years. All expected forest fires, they always 
came to a greater or less extent every fall as some 
indolent vagrant would drop a match in the tin- 
der of a bed of pine needless, or some stumpage 
which had been brushed, grubbed and burned over 
had gotten unmanageable and left a blackened and 
bleak track in the wake of its demon; or again a 
spark from a passing locomotive would fall where 
a breath of wind would fan it into life and it would 
grow till perhaps a mile or two of pines had been 
devoured by its incipient onslaught. Up to this 



THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 9 

time there had been no loss of life from this source 
and comparatively little loss of property. The 
usual precautions had been taken to prevent the 
spread of fires should they occur and especial care 
had been given to guarding against the starting of 
new ones, as the populace as a whole appreciated 
the fact that the dryness of the earlier part of the 
season -would make a forest fire especially danger- 
ous at this time. It was perhaps, more owing to 
the fact that the residents as a whole apprehended 
no danger, that the death list reached such appal- 
ling proportions. Many who might have escaped 
had they made the attempt at the time of the first 
alarm felt that the towns were at least safe until 
it was too late for them to rectify their mistake 
and they were overtaken by a death too horrible 
to contemplate. No one can view a forest fire 
-without feeling impressed with its awful and al- 
most majestically terrible advance, not slowly not 
carefully, as if the demon was inclined to torture 
his victims with any degree of suspense, but with 
a sweep and a surge that was something terrible 
to contemplate even in its mildest form. Mount- 
ing a gigantic pine almost as a flash of powder in 
the pan, carrying the burning cinders high into the 
air, dropping them far over and beyond, where they 
would slowly descend in circles of light into 
branches of another pine, only to repeat the oper- 
ation again and again, carrying tbe fire forward 



10 THE vSURROUNDING COUNTRY. 

with almost incredible rapidity, until it reached a 
clearing or had burned itself out. As to most of 
my readers, the various towns mentioned in the 
text will be known only on paper, it may not be 
out of place to give in a few words a brief outline 
of the location of the different towns and the in- 
dustries upon which for the most part each was 
to a great extent dependent. 

Hinckley was perhaps the largest and most im- 
portant point in the fire swept district. It was 
here that a number of the most heroic episodes of 
the fire took place ' id where by far the greatest 
number of people perished in the flames. It was a 
thriving town on the St. Paul & Duluth R. R. 
seventy-seven miles North-east from St. Paul. It 
was practically built and maintained by the Bren- 
nan Lumber Co. which concern owned a large 
lumber plant at Hinckley and which employed from 
300 to 400 men the year round. Its lumber mills 
were fed by logs which were floated down the 
North and South branches of the Grindstone River 
which flow southeasterly and joined within the 
limits of the town. Hinckley is also the junction 
of the Great Northern and St. Paul & Duluth Ry's. 

Mission Creek is a small station three miles south 
of Hinckley on the St. Paul & Duluth R. R. The 
John Martin Lumber Co. had mills at this point. 

Pokegama is a small station on the Eastern 
Minnesota R. R. eight miles southwest of Hinck- 
ley on Pokegama Creek. 



THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. l\ 

Wareham is a small station on the Great North- 
ern R. R. sixty-three miles South-west from Duluth 
and seven miles North-west of Hinckley. 

Sandstone, next to Hinckley was perhaps the 
most important point in the afflicted section, 
and was the scene of terrible loss of life. It is a 
thriving town on the Eastern Minnesota Ry., 
nine mi»les from Hinckley on the Kettle River. Its 
principal support were the Sandstone quarries In 
the bluffs by the river, and it was from these quar- 
ries that its name is derived . The scenery at Sand- 
stone presents much that is picturesque and grand. 

Miller and Finla}rson are small stations on the 
St. Paul & Duluth R. R. between Hinckley and 
Kettle River. 

Kettle River or Rutledge is on the line of the St. 
Paul & Duluth R. R. sixteen miles from Hinckley. 

Partridge, a station on the Eastern Minnesota 
R. R. sixteen miles from Hinckley; of no great com- 
mercial importance but in the scene of the con- 
flagration. 

Pine City, was the nearest point to the fire swept 
district which was unharmed and from this point 
the relief committees did their noble work. It is 
on the line of the St. Paul & Duluth R. R., sixty- 
four miles from St. Paul and ninety-one from Du- 
luth. The Snake River which flows through the 
town practically forms the Southern Boundary of 
the havoc wrought b j- the fire fiend . The name 



12 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 

of Pine City will be long remembered as one which 
was intimately connected with the Hinckley ca- 
lamity. It has one or two steam saw mills and is 
a thriving community of about six hundred 
people. 

Cumberland, on Beaver Dam Lake on the Chi- 
cago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha road in 
Wisconsin in Barron County, is a live town with 
a population of about one thousand people, in the 
limits of the fire swept country; it was not injured 
to any great extent but was a point that the 
relief committee made a basis of operation. 

Barronett, a village with a population of about 
five hundred people in Barron County, on the 
Omaha road seven and a half miles Northeast from 
Cumberland. The village was built and practic- 
ally maintained by the Barronett Lumber Co., 
which operated a large mill at the place, kept a 
general store and gave employment to nearly all 
the people of the town. Barronett was com- 
pletely destroyed not a vestige of it remaining. 

Bashaw was a post office in Burnett County 
ten and a half miles Irom Shell Lake the nearest 
railroad station. Bashaw's total population did 
not exceed sixty people and it suffered terribly 
from the fire fiend. 

Rice Lake, an incorporated town of twenty-five 
hundred people, on the Omaha road about ten 
miles east of Cumberland. It was not injured to 



THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 13 

any extent by fire but was a point of distribution 
for the relief. 

Granite Lake is a station on the Omaha road 
about four miles south of Barronett. Of small 
importance but was totally consumed. 

Cable and Drummond were small towns on the 
Omaha road in Bayfield Co. The centre of a 
sparsely settled district which was burned over and 
which was damaged to a greater or less extent by 
the fire. 

Ashland, Wis., an important City on the south 
shore Chequamegon Bay, an inlet of Lake Superior, 
quite a railroad centre and a metropolis of the 
whole section known as Northern Wisconsin, three- 
hundred and forty .four miles from Milwaukee and 
one hundred and eighty-four miles from St. Paul. 
During the summer months while the lake is open 
Ashland holds quite an important position as a 
lake port, immense quantities of lumber, ore and 
grain are shipped annually east over the lake 
route from this place. A number of fine saw-mills 
and planing mills are in operation here, and alto- 
gether it is a verv lively, wide-awake berg. Popu- 
lation, from twelve to fifteen-thousand people. 

Washburn, the terminal of the Omaha road is 
situated on the north shore of Chequamegon Bay, 
directly across the bay from Ashland. It is a place 
of no small commercial importance both as a rail- 
road centre, a lumbering point and a lake port. 



14 THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 

It contains quite a number of large lumbering 
plants and lumber mills, and is a natural outlet 
for an immense tract of timber land which was 
swept by the great fire. Washburn itself had a 
■very narrow escape. 




CHAPTER II. 
THE FIRE. 




which will long be remembered as one of the most 
horrible, history has to relate. Day dawned at 
Hinckley much as other days had done many times 
in its existence, with a hazy blue smoke enveloping 
everything, softening the rough harsh lines of the 
landscape and giving instead a mellow glow of sun- 
light that was both pleasant and beautiful to look 
upon. Forest fires had been raging to the South 
of them for some time. For nearly three months 
at one place or another the fire would start and 
run over a mile or two of woodland and either die 

15 



16 THE FIRE. 

down or smolder until another opportunity or a- 
nother breeze swept it in another direction and 
gave it a new lease of life. All noticed that the 
smoke had grown more troublesome than on the 
the preceeding day. They knew the fire had come 
closer to the town but not one had ever dreamed 
that ere nightfall their pleasant little berg would 
be literally wiped out of existance, and that over 
two hundred of its people would have passed to 
the realm beyond. 

They were sturdy, hardy fellows these men of the 
Northern Pines and they felt that in case of peril 
they could cope with any ordinary blaze. They 
had a thoroughly organized Fire-Brigade, with a 
good equipment and paraphernalia necessary for 
the work.Then is it any wonder they were loth to 
leave? No such calamity had ever been known, they 
had no precedent of this sort and it is only natural 
for one to feel secure in his own door-yard. 

They, perhaps, did not fully appreciate the con- 
dition which made this different from other days. 
In the first place, the entire section could be well 
compared to a gigantic tinder-box, waiting only 
the spark to burst into a huge sheet of flame. The 
season had been almost entirely lacking of moisture, 
no rain having fallen for nearly three months, or 
since the early part of June; the corn drooped, the 
potatoes withered, and on all sides could be heard 
the cr yfor rain ; even the maples and other deciduous 



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THE FIRE. 17 

trees shriveled and wilted, and the ground itself lay 
open in great cracks as the parched earth endeavor- 
ed to draw a little moisture from the heated atmos- 
phere. The dust laid thick on the field and in the 
roads following the passers-by in great clouds and 
making the very life of the traveler miserable. 

Just where the fire originated and when, will 
probably never be known. Half a dozen different 
fires were known to have been burning in the sec- 
tion swept by the great fire, and which one acted 
as the match to the magazine is of course hard to 
determine. 

It may be altogether fanciful and it may not, 
but the writer has heard the following theory of 
the origin of the Hinckley blaze and will put it in 
writing with the admonition that it be taken for 
what it is worth. As has already been stated fires 
had been raging in one district or another adjacent 
to Hinckley for nearly three months prior to the 
memorable first day of September. The air was 
thoroughly saturated with smoke and had been 
for days, so much so that the horizon presented 
that peculiar atmospheric phenomena which we 
usually witness during our Indian summer when 
everything takes on a hazy indistinctness and the 
light blue of the earth mingles with the deep blue 
of the sky and it is hard to determine where the one 
begins and the other ends. It is a demonstrated 
fact that large quantities of fine dust floating in an 



18 THE FIRE. 

■atmosphere which is entirely free from moisture, 
as was true in this case, will in the course of time 
ignite from spontaneous combustion, and it is a 
theory held out by some that the charcoal dust 
and carbon which had been absorbed by the atmos- 
phere in this section, became so heated by the long 
! continued drought that spontaneous combustion 
was produceed and culminated in this terrible cal- 
amity. Nor are the proofs entirely lacking that 
; would tend to prove that this version of the story 
is not all moonshine. Those who witnessed it say 
that the air itself seemed to be on fire and the 
manner in which the fire advanced would tend to 
pro ve this theory . It did not, as is usuallythe case , 
burn along from bush to bush, or from tree to 
tree, but seemed to make great leaps, oftimes break- 
ing out fifteen hundred or two thousand feet ahead 
of the foremost blaze without any apparent cause, 
or any means of communication but the air itself. 
One man who took refuge in a lake at least fifteen 
hundred feet in width tells of actually seeing great 
balls of fire leap from the burning forest on one 
side to the unscathed pines on the other, there to 
renew the dire desolation -which it had already 
spread in its track. Another, a farmer who by 
dint of hard work had succeeded in clearing some 
fifteen acres of ground and had built a little home 
upon it, said that he had prepared to fight the fire 
r on earth, but was not fortified against a fire from 



THE FIRE. m 

the heavens, saying that it literally rained fire for 
some minutes before they were struck by the wave 
of heat which presaged the fiery hurricane and 
which proved so disastrous to so many human 
beings. 

A very significent fact in this connection, and 
one that is rather difficult to account for is that 
the houses on the south side of the town proper at 
Hinckley, which, from the direction of the wind 
one would naturally suppose would be the first 
to go, were as a matter of fact the last structures 
in the town to catch fire. 

All the survivors of the calamity speak of having 
noticed in its outset the same peculiar phenomena. 
The wind was terrific and the smoke so black and 
dense that it was impossible to see anything three 
feet away. The air -was thoroughly impregnated 
with carbon and heavily charged with gas, sud- 
denly there was a report, and the whole mass of 
smoke burst into a living sheet of flame with a 
roar which was that of thunder and that was fol- 
lowed by a crackling and burning of everything 
inflamble of all descriptions within the scope of 
the blaze. 

That fires of this description have been known 
to occur in this section is vouched for by the fol- 
lowing extract from a letter to the writer from 
at prominent attorney of the city of Duluth: 



'20 THE FIRE. 

"It was in June, 1872, after a rainless spring that 
fires started in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, 
were feeding on the pine and fir forests to the 
south of us, and gradually working toward the 
lake." 

"Upon a certain day, shortly after sunrise, the 
wall of smoke hanging over the forests toward the 
south, was suddenly bent in our direction by a 
gale from that quarter. So sudden was this move- 
ment that we, who had estimated the fire to be at 
least fifteen miles distant, were surprised a few 
moments later to see the tree tops across the bay 
some three miles distant, all ablaze. No smoke 
was then visible. It soon, however, began again 
to roll up and was carried by the strong wind like 
a great black monster across the river (here about 
half a mile in width) enveloping Grassy Point 
in its folds and seeming to swallow up the tall 
pines of the forest, just west of the little village of 
Oneota. We were' fortunate in being out of the 
track of the monster, else there would have been 
none left to tell the tale." 

"The column of smoke had reached the valley 
and began to climb the mountain in less time than 
it takes to write this description. While we were 
standing in the clear sunlight gazing at the wall 
of smoke before us, a bolt of fire like a flash of 
lightning— shot from the Wisconsin shores through 
the black ribs of the monster, and seemed to ignite 



THE FIRE. 21 

the whole mass in a moment. A subdued roar, a 
crackling, hissing sound, one moment a wall of 
the densest, blackest smoke, the next, a blood red 
flame, and next we could look through the woods 
and along Grassy Point, smokeless uow, but all 
ablaze* roaring and crackling towards the mount- 
ain." 

"As before, the smoke began to roll up and hide 
the ravages of the flame. As the fire led to what 
is known as the gorge, a deep, rocky glen, back of 
Oneota, and as there was no immediate danger of 
the town being burned, unless the wind should 
suddenly change, a few of us young fellows repair- 
ed as rapidly as possible to a place near the glen 
and succeeded in gaining a point of vantage on the 
south-east side of the glen, in a little clearing on 
an elevated plateau, where we had a good view 
of the fire ,looking up the glen which was at that 
time,densely wooded with pine, fir, cedar etc. Be- 
fore we had reached our stand, the smoke had 
rolled up the^mountin and down the rocky sides of 
the glen, completely filling the gorge, and driven 
by the gale had passed to the northward. We had 
come to witness again the phenomena first men- 
tioned. We had not long to wait, a blinding flash 
and the whole world before us seemed to be ablaze. 
in ten seconds or perhaps less, every particle of 
smoke was consumed and we could look down and 
through the glen, now all ablaze, which ten sec- 



22 THE FIRE. 

onds before was green with verdure and growing 
trees." 

"We stayed here for some time watching the 
smoke explosions which seemed afterwards confin- 
ed to this glen and occured at intervals of about 
fifteen minutes, as if the dense woods timing 
within its rocky sides furnished the gases, which 
being somewhat confined by the bluffs on either 
side, were not swept along by the gale and accum- 
ulating here, were again and again ignited; now 
black as mid-night, now flaming red, and next as 
clear as ether. As we stood looking at these 
changes I noted particularly how clearly one could 
see down and through the glen, after the cloud of 
smoke was consumed and before it began to form 
again." 

"I remember of having said to my companion, 
If Dante had seen a glen like this, at a time like 
this, he would have been able to describe a Hell, 
which would have put a fear of God into the hearts 
of his readers and no mistake." 

"The impression I received on that June day, 
time can never efface. The dense columus of smoke 
now rolling majestically upwards, now torn and 
riven by the wind into fantastic forms ancj black 
as mid-night, now flaming red and in a moment 
gone, leaving in its place a vacuum as transparent 
as space, now deafening the ear with its roar; now 
still as death and again seething, crackling, hissing, 



THE FIRE. 38 

sounding at one time like the roll of distant thun- 
der, or the ocean surf trampling on the sea shore, 
and again lapsing into death-like silence.' ' 

Although the exact origin of the fire is some- 
what indefinite the fact is very plain to even the 
most casual observer that the fire must have start- 
ed in at least two or perhaps three different points 
almost similtaneously . 

One of these points must have been in the re- 
gion south of Mission Creek, in Minnesota, and 
the other about fifty miles east and twenty miles 
south of this place, at or near Cumberland or Rice 
Lake, in Wisconsin. While the eastern, or Barron- 
ette fire, if I may be pardoned for using this term, 
to distinguish it from the western, or Hinckley 
blaze, may have covered as much territory and 
been as terrible to endure as was the Hinckley hor- 
ror, its possibilities for the destruction of life were 
not as large as lay in the path gi the western de- 
mon . Hinckley itself probably held as many people 
at the outbreak of the calamity as all the towns 
affected by the eastern fires put together. As this 
is true, it is also a fact that the loss of life at 
Hinckley was much greater than in any other sec- 
tion of the burned district, so it behooves us in 
giving an authentic history to devote more space 
to the sufferings of the Hinckleyites than to any 
other section. 

The first intimation to the people of Hinckley 



24 THE FIRE. 

that anything unusual was soon to occur was a- 
bout noon, when the smoke, which had been rather 
troublesome all the morning, seemed to grow more 
dense and was accompanied by a heat which,though 
it was not much, was enough to be quite percept- 
able. No one thought anything of it or was a- 
larmed about it until an hour later, when as it 
still increased, they thought the Fire Department 
might have something to do before the afternoon 
was over, and an occasional group would be seen 
wistfully -watching the southern sky and joking a- 
bout their ability as fire fighters. The storm cloud 
itself, which, when it burst, swept everything be- 
fore it, rose like an almost perpendicular wall of 
black smoke surging and roaring and rolling, ris- 
ing into the very heavens as far as the eye could 
reach. It was hardly a time to contemplate the 
sublime and majestic, but the sight of that terrible 
cloud of fire in its irresistable onslaught was a 
wonderful demonstration of the power of the ele- 
ments and enough to make the strongest man 
quake and beg for mercy in his very weakness and 
insignificance. Some small idea of the awfulness 
of this disaster can be gleaned from the fact that 
the storm cloud's roar was heard at Pine City fif- 
teen miles away, where it appeared to be only a 
short distance off; they had no idea that it reached 
Hinckley, or that Hinckley had been destroyed un- 
til the news was brought in by the survivors. 



THE FIRE. 25 

Although the wind had blown a gale from the 
south all the morning, about half-past one it seem- 
ed to gain strength and gradually increased until 
at about four o'clock when its fury was at its 
height, its velocity was at least sixty miles an 
hour. In certain sections of the forest over which 
the fire passed, where all evidence of the work of 
the winJ has not been entirely obliterated, the 
trees are all up-rooted bodily by the wind and 
are found all lying in one direction, showing that 
the wind came directly from the south and was 
the direct wind of the hurricane rather than the 
twisting motion of the cyclone. 

Another gruesome feature of the occasion and 
one that added much to the bewilderment and 
frightfulness of the scene was that during the peri- 
od that the wind was at its height, owing to the 
combined influences of the cloud and the smoke 
from the ruins, it was as dark as mid-night, except 
when the fire reached some material more inflam- 
able than the rest, it would flare up and light up 
the scene giving it an appearance very similar to 
a flash of lightning in a thunder storm. 

Very few people, unless they have given the mat- 
ter some little study and thought have any con- 
ception of the fire nor of the country which was 
traversed by its flames* While for the most part our 
descriptions so far have been confined to the country 
immediately adjacent to Hinckley the fire cover- 



26 THE FIRE. 

ed a region of over twenty-five hundred 
square miles of surface and extended over a strip 
of territory from twenty to fifty miles in width, 
and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty- 
five miles in length, comprising parts of Washburn, 
Sawyer, Douglas, Bayfield, Barron and Burnett 
Counties in Wisconsin, and Pine, Kenabec and 
Aitkin Counties in Minnesota. 

We do not wish to be understood as stating that 
this entire section was burned over, but that por- 
tions of the fire covered this entire district. It 
seemed to burn in strips leaving a belt of timber 
untouched, while on both sides the flames had laid 
w aste hundreds of acres of pine lands . All this sec- 
tion is of the same general character, that is, it a- 
bounds in pine lands and lumber interests. 

The western portion was by far the most thickly 
settled of any part and it was in this section that 
the fury of the fire seemed to wreak its vengence on 
a helpless and unsuspecting community almost with 
out warning. Farther east it was more like the 
ordinary forest fire, and was more as they expect- 
ed and in some cases they were not only able to 
save themselves but their stock and occasionally 
their buildings. 

A peculiar feature of this conflagration and with- 
out doubt the most horrible and excruciating part 
of the whole terrible affair was the wave of heat 
that is described by all the survivors, asaccompa- 



THE FIRE. 27. 

nying the first fierce burst of the storm. 

It was by the intense heat of this first wave that 
most of those who make up the death list came to 
their untimely end As the condition of nearly 

all of the bodies after the fire had passed would in- 
dicate that the victims had died not from the flames 
themselves, but from the inhalation of the hot gas- 
es of this first wave. As for instance a man who 
evidently had been running, was found with his 
foot raised for another step, in which position he 
he had died as he was overtaken by the heat, and 
a number of similar cases could be cited which go 
to show that God was merciful and that death 
came in many cases instantly instead of by slow 
degrees of torture as would naturally be expected 
in a case of this kind. Mr. Fraser whose miracu- 
lous escape will be cronicled in the ensuing pages 
says that when the wave struck the one hundred 
and twenty people who lost their lives on the wag- 
on road north of Hinckley, there was one piercing 
cry of mortal agony and then all was still, the 
literal stillness of death itself. 

As this fire differed from others in its extent and 
in, the velocity of the wind, in the same degree was 
it^ heat more intense and of much longer duration 
than the average forest fires. 

It was the ordinary thing in a forest fire that 
the fire should run over the ground, burn the under- 
brush and fallen limbs, but it did as a rule com- 



28 THE FIRE. 

paritivly little damage to the trees for lumoering 
purposes. Oftimes the pines were killed or died 
from the effects of the fire, but it was seldom that 
they were actually burned. In this case however, 
while it does not hold true in all parts of the fire 
swept district, in certain portions of the western 
section the heat was so intense it not only burned 
the underbrush and the pines, roots, trunks and all 
but actually consumed the top earth, or loam, and 
where had been a forest of standing pine and under- 
brush there is nothing left but the clay subsoil 
and the rocks and stones "which happened to be 
held in the upper deposit. Of course this is not 
true over the entire section but in certain portions 
where the fire was the hottest this condition of af- 
fairs exists, while in certain other portions which 
from some unknown cause had the benefit of a 
cool current of air, the appearance does not differ 
materially from other forest fires. 

It was a very noticeable fact that the heat in- 
creased in the degree of its intensity with the num- 
ber of miles which it had burned over, or in other 
words it was more intense at Hinckley than at 
Mission Creek and still more severe and destructive 
at Sandstone than at Hinckley or in any other 
part of the doomed section. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE EMERGENCY TRAIN 




glance at the accompanying cut of the 
plat of the town of Hinckley will give a 
better understanding of the events chron- 
icled in the following pages than would 
otherwise be possible. Hinckley was an incorpor- 
ated village of about twelve hundred inhabitants, 
situated at the junction of the St. Paul & Duluth 
and Eastern Minnesota Railways, which is a part 
of the G. N. system, seventy-seven miles from St. 
Paul and seventy miles from Duluth. Both roads 
run in a northerly direction and have Duluth for 
their destination. They crossed each other just 
south of the town proper. 

The depots of the respective roads were situated 
29 



30 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 

a short distance north of the junction and about 
fifteen hundred feet apart. All of the business por- 
tion of Hinckley, and in fact all of the town with 
the exception of a few buildings west of theDuluth 
tracks lay between these two roads, while direct- 
ly north of it about a quarter of a mile distant ran 
the Grindstone River. This stream ran directly 
east and west and was crossed by both railroads 
and by a wagon-bridge which was situated about 
midway between the railroad bridges. 

Just east of the Eastern Minnesota track and in 
fact directly east of the town itself is the gravel pit 
which will be refered to later. It is about three 
acres in extent and held from two to three feet of 
water at the time of the fire. It was the nearest 
and proved to be the safest possible means of escape 
from the fury of the flames. 

On the day of the fire the north bound Limited 
from St. Paul to Duluth, on the St. Paul & Du- 
luth road reached Hinckley at 2 o'clock, two hours 
late, and a few of the more timorous and those 
who felt the danger at that time escaped on that 
train. The local freight on the Eastern Minnesota 
which has a daily run from Duluth to Hinckley and 
return reached Hinckley at 2:40. The south bound 
passenger on the Eastern Minnesota was due at 
Hinckley at 3:25 and arrived on time. The freight 
waited until the arrival of the passenger, when the 
two crews made up a combination train which was 



THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 31 

©ne of the principal means of escape of the affright- 
ed people. 

The south bound Limited on the Duluth road, 
from Duluth to St. Paul was due at Hinckley at 
4:05. It ran within about a mile and a half of the 
town, where it was met by the townspeople, and 
learning the bridge was unsafe, ran back to Skunk 
Lake, a little lake near the track about five and a 
half miles from Hinckley, where its passengers 
passed through a frightful, yet succesful battle for 
their lives. 

Penned in on three sides by a wall of fire, east, 
west and south alike presenting a sea of flames, in 
the agony of the hour their natural direction to 
escape was toward the north, and following this 
impulse, a number of citizens, nearly crazed with 
fear followed the wagon road which leads out from 
Hinckley to the north and as the following pages 
will relate enacted the most heart rending act in 
this awful drama. A few fled to the river but more 
trusted their safety to the gravel pit. It was to 
one or the other of these channels that the survivors 
owe their lives to-day and the methods they took 
to reach them and how it fared with them in their 
respective stations as well as how the grim reaper 
cameto those of them who are now past the bourne 
from which no traveler returns, it is the writer's 
mission to relate. 

About two o'clock in the afternoon the Fire De- 



32 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN 

partment of Hinckley was called to the west side 
of the town to fight a slight blaze which had brok- 
en out there and as the fire was seen to be ap- 
proaching quite close to the town, it was fear- 
ed it might get obstreperous so it was thought 
best to be on guard. Two thousand feet of hose 
was laid down and as that was found to be inade- 
quate to reach the hottest blaze a telegram was 
sent to Rush City for six hundred feet more. That 
telegram however, was never answered, and the 
hose never arrived, as ere that was possible, Hinck- 
ley, as it had been, was a thing of the past. 

It was about two o'clock that the department 
was first called out and ere half an hour had elaps- 
ed half a dozen small buildings in the outskirts 
were in flames. The wind was blowing a perfect 
hurricane from a direction a little west of south. 
The smoke which had grown more and more thick 
and dense as the sun mounted toward the zenith 
now fairly darkned its noonday glare and the heat 
became even to the hardiest almost beyond endur- 
ance. Then it was that the terrified populace rully 
appreciated their peril, then and not till then did 
the terrible race for life begin. Stout hearts grow 
weak and strong men turn pale at the memory of 
that hour of mortal agony, when men, women and 
children seemed doomed to certain death in that 
veritable hell upon earth. 

At twenty minutes to three or forty minutes, 




ENGINEER WILLIAM BEST. 



THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 33 

after the first alarm was turned in the local freight 
on the Eastern Minnesota, from Duluth, Engineer 
Ed Barry witha train of thirty emyties and ten loads 
pulled into Hinckley . Everything was afire at that 
time but the town itself, and the heat and smoke 
were intense almost to suffocation. The freight 
was side-tracked until the arrival of Passenger 
No. 4 from the north at 3:25 with Engineer Best 
and Conductor Powers in charge. After a short 
consultation with them Engineer Barry ran up 
to the other end of the yard and coupled onto three 
box cars and the caboose and backed down on 
the main track and joined the passenger, making a 
train of three box cars, a caboose and five passenger 
coaches besides the two engines. All this time the 
fire had been pushing on in its mad career and a- 
bout this time it was announced by Captain Craig 
of the Department to the throng of people gath- 
ered at the west end of the town that the fire was 
beyond control; that the whole town would soon 
be in flames and that the\ r must save themselves 
for he could do nothing for them. Then began 
the mad rush for life, which has no parallel in the 
history of* stricken humanity, and it may well be 
said that it is our fervent prayer that we may be 
spared so terrible an ordeal. 

It has been said that " there are moments in all 
men'slives that try men's souls." If it be so this 
certainly was one of them. Men, women and chil- 



34 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 

dren struggled with one another for that most 
precious of God's gifts, life. Yet with it all was ex- 
hibited a spirit of self sacrifice of the strong in the 
succor of the weak, and a wonderful exhibition of 
the noblest attributes of mankind. Heroes were on 
every hand and heroic deeds were enacted on all sides 
without number, the details of which will never 
be known until the Book of the Great Hereafter is 
opened for our inspection. Men who saw their 
families safe on board, turned back at the risk of 
their own lives to carry the helpless children of 
their freinds to a place of safety. One man carried 
no less than twenty children out of the fiery fur- 
nace in this way, another went through every 
house left in the town to see that none were left 
behind and it is a very significent fact that a very 
large percentage ofthose who perished in the flames 
were those best able to take care of themselves but 
who sacrificed their own lives for the sake of others . 
After having escaped from being incinerated in 
their homes, those who succeeded in boarding the 
Eastern Minnesota Emergency train placed their 
lives in the hands of a few men upon whose courage 
and strength of character rested the great respons- 
ibility of carrying them out of danger. Heroes 
they were, every one of them and it seems to me 
that their courage, strength and good judgement 
should not only be commended but should receive 
a more substantial recognition at the hands of a 




CONDUCTOR H. B. POWERS 



^_ 



THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 35 

public which but for their presence of mind would 
have heard of a calamity infinitely more horrible 
than it is as recorded today. At such a time and 
under such circumstances a man must needs be a 
a hero to stick to a post of duty and do that duty 
in the face of every danger and at the risk of his 
own life. Too much cannot be said of the forti- 
tude of the brave Engineers or of their indomitable 
Conductor. To Engineer Best and Conductor Pow- 
ers, without doubt, belongs the greatest credit, for 
saving this train. Engineer Barry, of course, did 
his part and did it well, but it was the superior 
judgement of Best and Powers that decided how 
long it would be possible to delay the train, and 
just when the crucial moment had arrived, when 
it was unsafe to stay longer, and too much cannot 
be said in the way of commendation of the cool, 
clear-sighted and masterful manner in which the 
train was handled by the engineers and train-men 
in loading the passengers . After waiting at the de- 
pot in the heat and smoke for three quarters of an 
hour, and until men and animals were falling in 
the streets from the heat, at a quarter past four 
Best loosened the brakes and the train moved out 
across Grindstone bridge toward a place of safety. 
' Arter crossing the bridge the train waited five 
minutes and took on forty more of the panic strick- 
en towns-people, then as the ties under the train 
were burning and even the cars themselves were 



36 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 

blistering and almost blazing from the intense heat 
the train pulled out though in doing so they were 
obliged to leave men, women and children to that 
fiery ordeal which meant almost certain death. 
At the last stop the heat had become so intense 
that the very rails were begining to warp and 
twist out of shape with heat. 

After having taken on all that could be saved 
by them the engineers put on all steam and rushed 
toward a place of safety as fast as the wheels 
could turn. Every thiug was burning, fire on all 
sides and the heat continued to be so intense and 
terrible, that combined with the smoke, it seemed 
as if those who had gotten on the train would die 
of suffocation. But it had been willed otherwise 
and it was not to be. Seven miles out of Hinckley 
they found for the first time a cool current of air 
and from that time on they breathed easier. 
Though they were by no means out of the fire lim- 
its the heat did not seem so intense and the smoke 
was perhaps a little less blinding, although through 
all the run from Hinckley to Duluth the head-light 
was kept burning, it having been found necessary 
at Partridge on the down trip of the freight in the 
morning. 

When through the smoke the engineers could see 
by their knowledge of the road-bed that a bridge 
was close by, Best would put on his brakes, his 
engine controlled the air-brakes of the five passen- 




EXGINKER ED. I5ARRY 



THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 37 

ger coaches which made up the bulk of the train 
in "weight, and slow down to a three or four mile 
an hour gait, until they were certain the bridge 
was there when they would pass on. Special men- 
tion should be made of the brave deeds of two 
brakemen, whose names we are sorry to say we 
were unable to learn, who rode on the back end 
of Barry's tank, as they backed out, and as they 
reached a bridge would signal Barry, whether or 
not it was all right and he in turn would whistle 
off to Best, when they would go on to the next 
bridge where the operation was repeated. Nine- 
teen bridges in fourteen miles of road over which 
they passed were found after the fire to have been 
totally destroyed and they were all burning more 
or less furiously when the train passed over them. 

When Sandstone was reached the train was pul- 
led up and the people were begged to get aboard 
and fly for their lives. Some grasped the oppor- 
tunity but more did not, laboring under the im- 
pression that although Hinckley had burned, Sand- 
stone "was safe, an impression they had cause to 
regret an hour later when Sandstone was gutted 
as completely as Hinckley had been. 

Only a short stop was made at Sandstone, 
when the whistle sounded and the heavily loaded 
train started again on its way. On reaching Ket- 
tle River just out of Sandstone, the bridge was 
burning and the train slowed up before reaching it 



3& THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 

when aery from the watchman "For God's sake, 
go on, you can cross it now and it will go down 
in five minutes," made Barry draw a quick breath 
and with set teeth throw her wide open and run 
out on the bridge. They crossed in safety as if by 
a miracle and five minutes later the bridge fell of 
its own weight. 

There were two watchman at the bridge, a 
young man and one whose hair was tinged with 
gray. After the train had passed, the clothes of 
both watchmen were on fire and they started 
down a ladder by the side of the bridge in order to 
escape in the waters below. The younger man, 
whose family were already in the river, being quick- 
er and more agile than his colleague went down 
first and succeeded in saving, himself. While the 
older one in following was overcome by the heat 
at the first landing and fearing to go on turned 
back and climbing to the top again, died at his 
post on the grade. 

By this time the closely huddled passengers after 
having been exposed to the terrible heat for such a 
length of time were suffering horrible agony for a 
drink of water. At Partridge it was found neces- 
sary to take twenty minutes in order to get the 
engines ready to go on, and the time was improv- 
ed in getting water to the occupants of the cars. 
Up to this time the train had been running with- 



THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 39 

out orders and against the time ofaaown freight. 
At Partridge Engineer Barry got a message to use 
his own judgement and run as he saw fit, coupled 
with the information that the down train No. 23 
had been abandoned. Like their Sandstone neigh- 
bors the people at Partridge refused to leave and 
the train pulled out again, stopping at Mansfield 
and Kerrick. At Kerrick Engineer Barry found 
that his eyes had become so effected by the smoke 
and heat that he could scarcely see at all to say 
nothing of running an engine with a train load of 
people under his charge. He thought he would be 
compelled to give up but after about ten minutes 
rest, he plucked up courage and ran her through 
to West Superior, where he could go no further as 
he could see nothing. When he left his engine he 
was so exhausted with the heat and smoke and 
the mental strain he had been under that he could 
not stand but was carried to the Round House and 
cared for. 

Without wishing to depreciate in any way the 
noble deeds of Jim Root and Jack McGowan on the 
St. Paul & Duluth, of which so much has been said 
in various newspaper reports, it would seem to me 
that Engineers Best and Barry of this Emergency 
Train displayed courage and good judgment in 
facing the heat and backing out of Hinckley equal 
in every way to that shown on the south bound 
limited and as such should receive equal commend- 



4-0 THE EMERGENCY TRAIN. 

ation and recognition of their services. At the 
time the south bound limited started its run back 
to Skunk Lake it had no alternative but to go 
back or be burned, as the bridge across the Grind- 
stone River just north of Hinckley was already 
burning and was unsafe, while Engineers Best and 
Barry were obliged to cross a bridge which was 
similarly situated across the same stream half a 
mile east of this one, and they waited for more 
than half an hour knowing the bridge was on fire 
and upon its strength rested the lives of themselves 
and their passengers. Yet in the face of all this 
they waited and tried to get them all. 




■■■■■■H 






, 



CHAPTER IV. 
SKUNK LAKE. 




he south bound limited on 
the St. Paul & Duluthroad 
left Duluth for St. Paul at 
2 o'clock in the afternoon 
of that eventful Saturday., 
the first day of September. 
The train was in charge of 

Conductor, Thomas Sullivan, 

Engineer, James Root, 

Fireman, Jack McGowan 

Brakeman, John Monihan, 

Baggageman, Geo. F. Morris, 

Porter, John Blair, 

News Agent, Hermann Mannbart. 
Little did they think that in two short hours 
41 



42 



SKUNK LAKE. 



time they would be oliged to undergo one of the 
most trying ordeals that human beings ever en- 
dured and that ere night their names would be 
entered on the Roll of Honor as heroes worthy of 
the highest tributes of gratitude and commend- 
ation it was in the power of humanity to bestow. 

The train consisted of one combination car, one 
coach, two chair cars and Engine 69. The atmos- 
phere was heavy with smoke even as the train 
pulled out of the Duluth Depot and all the way 
down to Carlton it grew gradually thicker and 
more dense, until at that point it was found to be 
necessary to light the head-light and all the lamps 
in the train, as the smoke had so darkened and ob- 
scured the afternoon sun that it was found neces- 
sary, both for safety and comfort to have this art- 
ificial light. About this time the passengers began 
to show signs of uneasiness, especially among the 
women and children, and many a wistful glance 
was cast toward the men in the party as if implor- 
ing assistance and protection from a foe insid i ous 
and insatiable. Onward swept the ill-fated train, 
with its precious cargo of humanity, and but for 
the heroism of two men it might have been said 
to certain destruction. But James Root and John 
McGowan were made of sterner stuff than the or- 
dinary mortal and when the terrible ordeal came 
they were tried and .. were not found wanting. 

Steadily, sturdily on they plunged with determi- 



^ ■JU, «■ » ,■ , 



f 



— ^_^__ 




CONDUCTOR THOMAS SULLIVAN. 



SKUNK LAKE. 43 

nation depicted in every line of the frame of that 
redoubtable engine driver, and his only thought 
was to hold out until the fire was passed when all 
would be well. He was, with many others labor- 
ing under a false impression as to the actual extent 
and intensity of the fire and never dreamed that 
Hinckley could be burned in this way. Still the 
smoke increased and the heat became more and 
more intense and insufferable. It filled all the 
coaches until it was found difficult to breathe and 
of course added much to the dismay of the alread} r 
panic stricken passengers. The train men passed 
through the cars saying there was nothing to cause 
a,ny alarm, that the smoke would soon be past and 
imploring the passengers to keep their wits about 
them and not give vent to their feelings, though 
things might look dubious just then. By this time 
however, the train had approached near enough 
so that the flames could be seen to the right of the 
track and the roar of the blazing demon could be 
distinct^ heard, so that the quieting words of the 
trainmen fell like seeds upon rather stony ground, 
and the excitement increased with the moments. 
It soon became apparent that they all had but the 
slightest chance for their lives, and the scene when 
this was realized was terrible to witness. Strong 
men turned white and rigid, their set teeth and 
drawn lips and the wild look in their eyes showing 
the mental strain under which they were passing. 



44 



SKUNK LAKE. 



Women screamed and prayed and children clung 
to their mothers and cried and screamed, they 
knew not why. Abject fear was depicted on all 
countenances while a few showed a determination 
to make the best of a horrible predicament and to 
make as strong a fight for life as was possible. 
On, on rumbled the train every instant adding- 
terror to the scene in the coaches until within a 
mile and a half of Hinckley. At this point came 
the first information to the train that anything 
extraordinary was happening or had happened 
at Hinckley. The smoke was so dense it was im- 
possible to see the town and even if it had been 
possible the town w^as shut from view by a high 
hill. A number of fleeing, panic-stricken citizens 
flagged the train and in a few words told the en- 
gineer their story and then with their party board- 
ed the train, about one hundred and fifty or two 
hundred people in all were rescued in this way. 
Coming as they did from the flames of their homes, 
feeling that their lives were hanging by the merest 
thread which might snap at any time, smarting 
from burns and stifled by the smoke and heat, oft- 
times separated from loved ones, whom they would 
meet no more in this life, is it any wonder they 
lost their self control and boarded the train a gasp- 
ing, excited and half-crazed concourse of people? 
The train was within a mile and a half of Hinck- 
ley when it was flagged and the fire was coming 



_ 



■MM 



SKUNK LAKE. 45 

towardsitwitha speed of a locomotive, backed b>' 
that horrible wind. Engineer Root's first impulse 
was to put on all speed and run through the fire, 
but a second of deliberation Caused him to reverse 
his engine and run back away from it. Then be- 
gan a race which has no parallel in history, unless, 
perhaps it be the race of the Emergency Train on 
the Eastern Minnesota, which at that same in- 
stant was running a similar race under similar 
circumstances on a track about two miles east of 
the scene of this act in the tragedy. No one knows, 
no one can have any accurate conception of the 
awfulness and the suffering of that horrible ride. 
At first Root had no definite destination in view 
and no orders to run back on but those of common 
sense and humanity ; then he thought of a little 
marsh lake called Skunk Lake near the track 
about four miles from the point where they had 
met the refugees and turned back, and this lake he 
determined to reach at all hazards as he knew in 
doing so la} r his only hope of safety or even of life 
itself. On and on came the flames and the brave 
engineer saw they were rapidly gaining on him 
and put on a full head of steam in the hope that 
he might distance them, but all to no purpose, the 
fiery fiend had marked its prey, and was not to be 
baffled by a mere trifle such as a higher rate of 
speed. On it came, gaining steadily until it burst 
over them in its hurricane blast Smoke aud flames 



46 SKUNK LAKE. 

were everywhere. They came in at the ventilators 
at the top of the car, and through the cracks at 
the side of the windows. The rear coach was on 
fire and its passengers more terror stricken and 
horrified than ever fled to the other coaches to 
escape from the immediate danger, but the effort 
proved futile; one after another all the coaches 
first blistered with the heat and finally commenced 
to blaze. Then for a few minutes ensued a scene 
horrible beyond description. The roar of the 
flame — the stifling suffocation and darkness of the 
smoke — the intense heat, the shrieks and moans of 
the poor unfortunates almost baking in those 
crowded cars, lent to the scene a pandemonium, 
which it can be readily understood beggars descrip- 
tion. * The heat was so insufferable and intense 
that it cracked the glass in the windows of the 
cars, and as it did so, one man, perhaps more excit- 
able than the rest lost his mind, literally went mad, 
and with a horrible shriek threw himself from 
one of the windows and was swallowed up in the 
seething mass of smoke and burning cinders, a- 
nother and another followed his example and all 
were caught and destroyed by the insatiable flames. 
Imagine if vou can the eflect upon an already 
thoroughly frightened and exhausted train load 
of people of seeing three of their number jump to 
a death which they verily believed would soon be 
their own. No power on earth under the circum- 



n 

c 

— . 






5' 

O 



& 




SKUNK LAKE. 4T 

stances could have prevented the panic that en- 
sued, and one after another ten more unfortunates 
thought death itself preferable to such suspense 
continued any longer and threw themselves from 
the windows of that ill-fated train. 

While these scenes were being enacted in the 
coach engineer Root in his cab was suffering terri- 
ble agony from the heat. Wrapped in a large 
overcoat he kept his seat in the face of all the dan- 
gers which beset his path. 

Fire everywhere, his hands were blistered by the 
heat as he still held the lever, his clothes were burn- 
ing as were also those of his fireman, Jack Mc- 
Gowan. Jack leaped into the manhole of the water- 
tank and put out the fire in his own clothes, then 
grasping a pail, completely soused Jim with the 
contents of the tank; still on they flew, Jim holding 
the lever and Jack dashing water over him and 
helping him on. The glass in the cab window at 
Jim's side burst with the heat and a piece of it 
struck him in the neck and cut a horrible gash 
close to the jugular vein, and it bled profusely. 
Weakened by the loss of blood, the heat and smoke 
which he was obliged to endure, and feeling the 
terrible responsibility of saving so many human 
beings, twice was Jim overcome and fell from his 
seat to the cab floor and twice was he bolstered 
up by the faithful Jack. 

On and on they flew, words cannot describe the 



4-8 



SKUNK LAKE. 



scene, fire and smoke on every side and it seemed 
as if the very air was in league with the demon, to 
bring upon this frightened train-load death that 
comes in this awful form. To give the reader some 
idea of the heat in the cab, it might be said that as 
soon as the window burst with the heat the curtain 
caught fire and was torn down byJackMcGowan. 
The lagging caught fire and in"spite of the rapidity 
with which they backed up, the flames were more 
swift and blew l*ack into the cab, setting the front 
of the cab on fire, burning all the wooden handles 
of the steam connections, scorching the seats and 
melting the cab lamp. 

Minutes they were, but they seemed like hours, ere 
Skunk Lake was reached and the brave engineer 
brought the train to a stand-still and the train- 
men pointed out to the terror-stricken passengers 
the direction of the lake. As soon as the lake was 
reached McGowan assisted his wounded engineer 
to the water, and finding he could be of no assist- 
ance to others he laid down in the water himself. 
Owing to his superior physical strength he was 
able to care for Root and others in his power un- 
til the arrival of the Relief train from Duluth. 
Throughout the whole run exhibiting a spirit of 
heroism and self sacrafice not surpassed in that 
awful ordeal, where self sacrafice was not an un- 
common occurance and heroes were met on all sides . 

This train had on board from one hundred and 




PORTER (OHN BLAIR. 



SKUNK LAKE. 49 

thirty-five to one hundred and fifty regular through 
passengers and took aboard from one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred refugees from Hinckley. The 
exact number will probably never be known. 
Certaiu it is that over three hundred people owe 
their lives to the little water that remained in that 
lake, which owing to the continued drought had 
been reduced to a mere morass of mud and water. 
Here they lay four mortal hours, their faces close 
to the muddy water and endeavoring to hold up 
against the heat and smoke that lay so close to 
the ground that they were in danger of suffocating. 
Most of the passengers reached the lake, but some 
few who became confused and who ran any direc- 
tion without stopping to think what or where, and 
when their -friends succeeded in quieting them and 
starting them through the bush toward the lake 
the trees were all ablaze and the heat was so intense 
that they were obliged to turn back to the track 
where they remained until the fire had passed 
although none actually died from the heat on the 
tracks. 

After the fire had abated a little Root and Mc- 
Gowan went back to the train to see if they could 
not save the engine and tank. McGowan endea- 
vored to put out the fire in the tank but as the coal 
was burning he was unable to do so, so they un- 
coupled her from the tender and ran her ahead a 
short distance and this saved the engine with com- 



50 



SKUNK LAKE. 



paratively little damage. Root had by this time 
become thoroughly chilled by lying in the cold 
water and repaired to the floor of his cab where he 
was found by the relief. 

The only fatalities that actually occured on the 
train itself were two Chinamen who were on board 
and who seemed dazed and demented and could 
not be moved from their seats. They staid there 
overcome with the heat and burned with the ill- 
fated train. Then too, were those who threw 
themselves from the train before it reached Skunk 
Lake, all of whom perished in the flames. 

At the time of the fire the newspapers gave it out 
that Conductor Thomas Sullivan became confused 
and wandered aimlessly about and was found the 
next day about nine miles north of Skunk Lake in 
a state of mental demoralization. This is, how- 
ever, not the fact, as soon as he found that his 
passengers were safe he started back to Miller to 
protect his train as he knew that a freight was 
following him or that he was running against the 
time of the freight and feared that the calamity of 
a collision would be added to what had already 
occured- After an awful struggle with the heat 
he reached the station and sent the message, when 
true to his trust, that accomplished he "was obliged 
to succumb to the strain. He had done his duty 
as a man and a hero, human nature could do no 
more. 



SKUNK LAKE. 



51 



Special mention should also be made of the efforts 
of Herman Mannhart and J. W. Blair, the book- 
agent and porter whose efforts in assisting the 
ladies in their escape were self- sacraficing and he- 
roic. Blair taking especial pains and using the 
Fire Extinguisher that is carried on the train to 
put out the fire that had caught in the ladies dresses. 




CHAPTER V. 
THE GRAVEL PIT. 




he gravel pit of the Eastern 
Minnesota proved to be a 
God-send to those of 
the Hinckleyites who 
were not able to get a- 
way form the doomed 
berg on either of the 
trains, the escape of 
which has been describ- 
ed in the preceeding 
chapters. After the train on the Eastern Minneso- 
ta had pulled out, those who remained turned to 
the gravel pit as a last resort, knowing if that fail- 
ed then all hope would be lost. The gravel pit had 
been made by the Eastern Minnesota Ry. Co, who 
had used the gravel for the improvement of their 
road-bed. It covered some two or three acres of 
ground and its bottom lay some twenty or thirty 
feet below the level of the surrounding country, so 
that those who took refuge here were saved the 



THE GRAVEL PIT. 53 

excruiating suffering of the fierce blast of the wind 
which was to some extent broken from them. 
They were however, obliged to endure a constant 
shower of cinders and burning coals that made life 
very disagreeable and caused no end of suffering. 
About seventy people in all, men, women and 
children sought shelter in this pit. It contained a 
pool of water about three feet in its greatest depth 
and closely huddled together in this pool were sev- 
enty human beings besides all the domestic animals 
that survived the fury of the flames, such as horses, 
cows, pigs, chickens, etc. It proved to be the saf- 
est place in Hinckley, three or four hundred trunks 
which had been carried by the frightened people 
and hurled over the edge into the pit, where they 
lay all through the fire, came out unscathed. 

A number of vehicles had also been driven into the 
gravel pit, and in the work of relief that was to 
come they proved a very efficient means of distri- 
bution. The party entered the pit at about seven 
or eight minutes past four, and remained in the 
water from two to four hours. 

The first twenty minutes of the ordeal is describ- 
ed as being something terrible. The heat was so 
intense and the smoke so dense and blinding that 
all were suffering from the burning and smarting 
of their eyes and writhing from the intense heat, 
and the men were obliged to constantly throw 
water over the women and children to keep them 



54 



THE GRAVEL PIT. 



from growing faint and falling under the pressure. 
As most of the occupants of the gravel pit were 
women and children this duty devolved upon the 
few men of the party and with this duty and that 
of wetting cloths and wrapping them about their 
own heads and those of their proteges the men 
were kept busy through the entire ordeal. One 
man whose name could not be learned was over- 
come by the heat and smoke at the gravel pit, fell 
into the water and was drowned. As far as is 
known this was the only fatality in the pit. 

This gravel pit was large enough to have saved 
all the people of Hinckley and all their household 
goods besides, if they had only sought refuge here, 
but it was only the cool-headed ones that seemed 
to think of this or take it into consideration at all 
as an avenue of escape. The great majority of the 
people followed their first impulse, which was to 
fly; anything to get away from the fire and they 
trusted to their physical strength to keep out of 
the way of its ravenous advance, a feat which was 
utterly impossible b}' mere physical strength alone 
as was altogether too conclusively demonstrated 
on the north road. 

It is the natural query of any one who is not ac- 
quainted with the section, "Why in the world did 
not all the people run to the Grindstone River, 
that was only a quarter of a mile, just think some 
of them were saved a mile and a half from the 



2 




THE GRAVEL PIT. 55 

town. "The query is very natural and to look up- 
on the map one would imagine a very correct one 
but it is another illustration of the practical use- 
lessness of a theory. As a matter of fact, the Grind- 
stone River is nothing more nor less at this time 
of year than a little brooklet and scarcely deserves 
the dignity of the title of a stream at all . A person 
could step across it in many places and while it 
proved a shelter to some of the survivors it was 
not the shelter that would have been chosen by any- 
one familiar with the country, who had any choice 
in the matter. Most of those who plighted their 
faith with the river did so from sheer dasperation 
not knowing what else to do and quite a number 
met their death here from one cause or another, 
either by smoke, being overcome by the heat or by 
the waters themselves. A notable case of this sort 
being the wife of Martin Martinson and their three 
little boys whose little flaxen heads were found 
wholly unscorched showing they had met their 
death by the more merciful means of water than 
the horrible tortures of a fiery entrance into the 
life beyond. 

By far the most heart rending and horrifying 
scene of the vicinity aftar the fire had done its dead- 
ly work was on the road about a mile north of the 
town across the Grindstone River. Here in a little 
swale which had become thoroughly dried by the 
long continued drought so that at the time of the 



56 



THE GRAVEL PIT. 



fire it had absolutely no water in it, were found the 
bodies of one hundred and twenty six persons, be- 
sides a number of horses and cows which probab- 
ly followed the people out of the town, they too, 
looking for a place of safety. 

To look at it now impassionately after it is all 
over, it is very easy for us to say, "Well, why in the 
world didn't they go to the River or to the gravel 
pit? They might have known the fire would over- 
take them if they attempted to run away from it." 

When this is said we must first stop and think 
that they were weak human beings; that they 
were fleeing from what they thought they could 
not possibly escape; some even thinking that it 
was the judgment day itself; that they had no time 
for preparation; that they were dismayed and con- 
iused by the heat, smoke and roar of the storm and 
some were actually crazed by the awfulness of the 
scene. We ourselves placed in a similar position 
under similar circumstances would perhaps have 
used even less judgment than was shown by these 
unfortunates, whose untimely end was so tragic as 
to wring a sympathetic wail from every quarter of 
the world where the electric spark and the wire 
could carry the news. 

At the time of the first alarm, when it was known 
that the town was doomed, and the mad rush to 
escape began, many horses were harnesed to buggies 
or to other vehicles and all except a few that sought 



THE GRAVEL PIT. 57 

shelter in the gravel pit, followed out on the north 
road, as the most natural thing to do. A great 
many of these refugees boarded either one train 
or the other of which we have spoken, and in fact 
had it been possible for the Eastern Minnesota 
train to wait for this unfortnuate band of one 
hundred and twenty-six, all might have escaped on 
this train, as their bodies were found within a few 
rods of the Eastern Minnesota track and to the 
right of the wagon road. The party of town 
people, who flagged Root's train on the St. Paul & 
Duluth R. R. were the foremost of this contingent 
who followed out on the north road . For the most 
they had no definite destination, they had no idea 
as to what or where they were going, they only 
knew that it was certain death to remain and 
while death overtook many of them in their mad 
rush to escape, their idea was to get as far as pos- 
sible from that on-coming hurricane of fire. When 
theunfortnatescameto this apparent marsh which 
many of them knew had held water, they sought 
it as a last hcpe, a last resort, and it proved of no 
avail. They dared not turn back to the river, in 
fact they could not do so . So they pressed for- 
ward to the very center of the slough, where the 
grass grew thick and rank, hoping against hope 
that they might find water, which was worth more 
than all things else beside. They were, however, 
doomed to disappointment. Their death warrants 



58 THE GRAVEL PIT. 

had been signed and sealed and the grim warrior 
showed no quarter or mercy in their excetition. It 
was a fearful sight ; no, battlefield ever presented 
one more shocking or more terribly heart rending. 
Huddled together within an area of less than two 
acres of ground lay one hundred and twenty-six 
human bodies blackened and burned beyond 
recognition. All were more or less distoited and 
most of them seemed to be in exactly the same pos- 
ition and to show the sad expressions of then- 
em otions and terrible sufferings they were under- 
going when the first wave of heat swept over them. 
When they inhaled its horrible gases and met death 
as instantaneously as they might have done in the 
electric chair of a New York sheriff of the most 
approved and latest pattern. That death came 
instantaneously to most of them, there can be no 
possible question or doubt, as this fact is conclus- 
ively proven both from the posture of their bodies 
after the fire and the condition in which they were 
found. 

For instance, a young girl was found kneeling 
with her hands clasped, palms together and face 
turned upward showing that her last breath had 
murmured a prayer. A number showed that the 
victims had been in motion when over-taken and fell 
with the muscles in exactly the same position as 
they were the instant the fire had reached them, 
Mot having even relaxed and fallen limp. One of 



THE GRAVEL PIT. 59 

the most gruesome features of the scene being the 
appearance of the victims who were almost invar- 
iably without any vestige of clothing except per- 
haps the soles of the shoes, and were in many cases 
burned beyond any possibility of recognition and 
where recognition was possible it was difficult 
from the blistering of the skin and singeing of the 
hair, which gave a most uncanny appearance to a 
sight, ghastly even under the most auspicious cir- 
cumstances . One noticeable fact in connection with 
this band of unfortunates is that they were made 
up mostly of the most ignorant classes of the town. 
Those who had not the mental capacity to appre- 
ciate anything more than the fact that they were 
in great danger and this one thought seemed to 
force all others from their minds even to the exclu- 
sion of a thought of how that danger was to be 
averted and to this fact, perhaps more than any- 
thing else, can be laid the responsibility of such an 
enormous loss of life in this one spot. Most of the 
better classes of the Hinckley ites, the store-keepers 
and professional men got away on one of the two 
trains, nearly all though, escaped by the Eastern 
Minnesota. 

Another feature which proved misleading and 
gave to some a mistaken idea of what the fire ac- 
tually was, until it was too late, was the roar of the 
hurricane. Many people mistook its approach for 
the coming of a cyclone and fled to their cellars 



60 



THE GRAVEL PIT. 



a place of all places where they were almost sure 
to be cremated with their buildings. Others took 
refuge in wells and root cellars which had been 
covered with earth and were thus protected from 
the fury of the elements, and in this way they es- 
caped, but it is certainly a sad tale where thirteen 
people were taken from a well where they had 
been suffocated bv the heat. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JUNCTION, 
POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK. 




andstone, a small town 
on the Eastern Minnesota 
road about nine miles from 
Hinckley, was situated on 
the bank of the Kettle River 
in Pine County. The to- 
pography of its site differed 
materially from that of 
Hinckley and most of the 
other towns in the burned 
section in that it lay on a high bluff which was 
marked and seamed with great ravines; and too 
it also differed in that it depended to a great extent 
upon the product of the quarries in this bluff for its 
support. These quarries were quite extensive and 
from them Sandstone takes its name. The Kettle 
River at this point is a stream of no small dimen- 
sions being from three hundred to four hundred feet 
in width even at this time, when the drouth had 
been so pronounced and prolonged that the entire 

61 



62 SANDSTONE, PARTRDJGE, SANDSTONE JUNC. 

country seemed parched with the heat. The people 
of Sandstone like those of Hinckle3^, were in no 
Avay alarmed on the morning of the eventful Sat- 
nrdaj September 1st, 1894. The good wife went 
steadily about her house-hold duties, (making the 
cake, baking the bread and preparing perhaps for 
a quiet little family excursion on the morrow, 
when if the day were pleasant and everything pro- 
pitious she could have a little time for a quiet chat 
with her better half, and enjoy a little outing a- 
tnong the woods and rocks along the river bank. 
Peace, quiet and harmony on all sides, save per- 
haps, when the blast from the quarry reverberated 
along the distant bluffs as the good-wife's man 
toiled with his companions in their somewhat per- 
ilous task of tearing from its bed the rock that 
brought food for his little ones and shelter for his 
loved ones. No thought of danger had crossed 
their minds, nor did they appreciate that they 
were in any danger when the Emergency Train un- 
der Enginners Best and Barry pulled into the Depot. 
There was the usual number of loungers gathered 
there to seethe train come in and see if they had by 
any chance received a letter or package in the mail 
pouch. They were of course surprised to see four 
hundred and seventy rescued citizens of Hinckley 
fleeing from their homes, and while their town was 
then surrounded by fire, and the smoke was so 
chick and dense that it was difficult to bvcath, and 



POXEGAiviA AND MISSION CREEK. 63 

their vision was obscured, they scorned the idea 
that Sandstone was doomed to the same fate that 
her sister city just nine miles away had suffered, 
and for the most part refused to take the proffered 
aid in time and escape when the opportunity was 
offered them. In vain did those who knew what it 
was to escape death in its awful form entreat them 
to fly for their lives. They refused to heed the 
warning and the train was obliged to pull out and 
leave them to their fate, and in less than half an 
hour from that time, the hurricane of fire had done 
its deadly work, and of Sandstone nothing re- 
mained but heaps of ashes here and there except 
one small building "which from its position in the 
quarry escaped the ruin, and sixty-three of the 
towns-people had perished in the flames. They 
doubted, and it was their doubt that proved their 
ruin, they had been warned and had that warning 
been heeded not a single death need have been 
chronicled in the history of the fire at Sandstone. 
They remained at the Depot until the Fiery Demon 
was in sight, coming on with the speed of a race 
horse, then they realized the truth that had been 
told them and endeavored to make amends for 
their negligence in the mad rush for safety into the 
waters of the Kettle River. They were none too 
soon and their mad rush gave them no time to 
warn only those who happened to be on the one 
main street in the town, all others being left to 



64 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE J UNC. 

their fate; that first law of life, the law of self 
preservation being too strong to admit of any delay 
in the matter of reaching the river bank. A num- 
ber of unfortunates hearing the roar of the storm 
and mistaking its real nature for that of a cyclone, 
fled to the only place of safety against such a cal- 
amity, the cellar, and found themselves in the 
place- of all others from which there was no pos- 
sible means of escape, and when relief arrived they 
were found in their own homes burned beyond any 
possibility of recognition. As was the case in the 
entire fire swept district, narrow escapes among 
the survivors were the rule rather than the excep- 
tion, instances of heroic self-sacrifice could be cited 
by the hundred and an attempt to record them all 
would require a hundred books the size of this vol- 
ume, and even then it could truly be said that 
' ' the half had never been told . ' ' When the sun rose 
at Sandstone on that Sunday morning after the 
fire it shone upon as desolate and sad a scene as 
was ever spread before it, ruin and dire desolation 
every- where, and eveything lay black with smoke 
and charred with fire or was still smoking as some 
substance more substantial than the rest eked out 
its fight for existence a few hours longer than its 
neighbors. Near the station lay the form of a wo- 
man black and ghastly and charred beyond all 
possibility of being recognized, and ten rods farther 
on toward the river lay her husband, face down- 



POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK, , (?5 

ward, the only vestige of clothing on his body be- 
ing a heavy pair of shoes. About thirty rods nearer 
the river was the form of a sturdy twelve year old 
lad who had fallen fighting manfully foriife, and a 
little farther back on the road from the woman was 
the body of another child, who had been the first 
to fall. A few hours before these four had occupied 
a little farm-house about half a mile south of Sand- 
stone, and comprised all the members of a family 
by the name of Broad, who had run for the river, 
but had been overcome by the heat and fallen and 
died on the road in the order named. Their build- 
ings were also burned and of this farmer and his 
happy family and home, nothing is now left but a 
heap of ashes. Another farmer, one Louis Matas 
had a narrow escape. He saw the fire coming and 
made every preparation to give it battle but find- 
ing his efforts worse than futile he gave it up and 
took refuge in a well. He carried a bundle of clothes 
with him and descended by a ladder to the bottom 
of this well. There were several feet of water in the 
well, but even then with its protection he suf- 
fered intensely from the heat; and the sparks to- 
gether with the heat, set fire to and actually 
burned the clothing he had carried down with him 
and attempted to save. All of the survivors at 
Sandstone owe their lives and their escape to the 
fact that they were able to reach the river, where 
they waded in up to their necks and then only saved 






66 SANDSTONR, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JTJNC. 

themselves by keeping their faces and heads con- 
stantly wet by throwing water upon each other. 
The next morning the survivors some one hundred 
people went to Hell's Gate, a point about four 
miles from Sandstone on the Kettle River where 
they were fed supper by a man by the name of 
Place where they remained until about one oclock 
in the morning, when two messengers arrived say- 
ing that the relief train on the St. Paul & Duluth 
was at Sandstone Junction four miles away, and 
wishing them to walk to the train. This they did, 
men, women and children, four miles over burnt 
stumpage on a dark night is no small undertaking, 
yet in all the distance not a single complaint was 
heard nor even a whimper from a child, all were so 
grateful for this miraculous deliverance that their 
hearts were too full for utterance. 

Partridge was only a small station, a mere side- 
track with a few buildings on the Eastern Minne- 
sota Railway, about six miles above Sandstone. 
The whole population of the town did not exceed 
fifty people and of these only one death is known; 
he bears the romantic and time-honored name of 
Robert Burns, and was burned to death. At the 
time the Eastern Minnesota train passed through 
Partridge they stopped and endeavored to induce 
the people to get aboard, but they all refused and 
did not go but in twenty minutes time were com- 
pelled to seek some place of refuge. They had no 



POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK m. 

river or gravel pit to fall back upon, so the women 
and children were placed upon hand-cars and were 
hastily taken up the road about three miles to a 
lumber camp where about one hundred acres had 
been burned over. In this oasis the refugees staid 
from a little before six until twelve o'clock at night 
when they were rescued by the relief train from 
West Superior. Five families constituted the en- 
tire population of Partridge and all the residents 
made their escape into this clearing, the women 
and children being carried on the hand-cars and 
some of the men walking the entire distance. The 
town of Partridge was totally destroyed there be- 
ing nothing whatever saved from the fury of the 
conflagration. 

Sandstone Junction or Miller was another mere 
station on the St. Paul & Duluth road rine miles 
north of Hinckley. It never boasted of the dignity 
of a post-office nor did Partridge for that matter, 
but was merely a side-track for lumber Most 
of the residents of the section were farmers who 
had made clearings and settled on them. Most of 
these that escaped did so either by getting into a 
well or a potato patch and covering themselves 
with earth in order to protect themselves from the 
heat. Quite a number of the settlers were away 
at the time but about fifty per cent of those who 
were there were burned to death. 

Pokegama: Circumstances -were such that the 



68 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JUNC. 

survivors of fire at Pokegama suffered more actual 
pain from the heat, than those in any other section 
of the burned district. That this is a fact there can 
he no question. Pokegama is a small station on 
the Eastern Minnesota Railway about seven miles: 
south of Hinckley on Pokegama Creek, a small 
stream never more than twelve feet in width but 
at this time completely dried up so that no water 
remained in it except an occasional pool deeper 
than the rest of the bed of the brook. The wind at 
Pokegama was noticed to freshen at about ten 
o'clock in the morning and at twelve o'clock the 
fire reached the west side of the town and burned 
everything that was burnable in that direction. 
About two o'clock the fier}- hurricane reached 
Pokegama and so fierce and rapid was its on- 
slaught that nothing whatever could be saved and 
it was as if by a miracle that the people were 
saved themselves. A good mairy of the settlers in 
the viciuity came into town at the first alarm of 
fire, and those who did not, did not live to tell the 
story of their sufferings. Thirt}- of the residents 
of this sention fled to Pokegama creek, and laid 
there in the w^ater until the fire had passed. They 
took refuge in the sluice-way of the pond at Pokeg- 
ama 's mill and these suffered excruciating agony 
from the heat. They were in a veritable oven. 
The bank on one side of the pond was piled with 
logs to a depth of fifteen or eighteen feet. The 



POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK. 69 

mill, with its refuse and saw-dust flanked another 
side while the third was enclosed by a railroad 
trestle and bridge one hundred and eighty feet long 
built entirely of wood and inflamable material. 
All of these were entirely consumed and during all 
the time that they were burning these people laid in 
the water and endured that intense heat. They all 
owe their lives to the fact that all this material 
did not burn at one time, that is, that the logs 
were pretty well consumed before the mill caught 
fire, and the mill was burned before the bridge 
reached its hottest blaze. Twenty-two people are 
known to have lost their lives in this immediate 
vicinity. An incident that should be spoken of in 
this connection is in regard to a train on the St. 
Cloud branch of the Eastern Minnesota; Which 
left Hinckley for St. Cloud about half past two of 
that eventful afternoon. When it reached a point 
about a mile from Pokegama the rails had spread 
by the heat and the train left the track on a little 
two -foot fill. There was only one passenger on 
board besides the trainmen. Great credit is due 
the trainmen of this train for their efforts in saving 
the train from total destruction although the heat 
was intense and the coaches caught fire repeatedly, 
cushions smoked and blazed and had to be thrown 
out to burn, still they kept up their unequal fight 
carrying water from the tender and standing 
guard until the danger was past. It would seem 



70 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE JUNC. 

singular that this train should escape cremation 
while Root's train on the St. Paul & Duluth was 
totally consumed and the only explanation that 
can be given is that the fire had burst over the vi- 
cinity where the train was derailed and gone on 
some time before the accident occured, so that the 
trainmen did not have the fall fury of the fire to 
fight. Considerable apprehension was felt among 
the sufferers at Pokegama lest this train which 
was expected at any time, should run out on the 
bridge, which was unsafe even at the time the train 
came to its unceremonious standstill, and precipi- 
tate its passengers to certain destruction. A- 
bout eight o'clock in the evening the train-crew 
made its way to Pokegama, and took the blinded 
and suffering survivors with them back to the de- 
railed and rescued train where they remained un- 
til relief arrived . 

We append herewith a descriprion of the fire at 
Mission Creek by one of the survivors, thinking 
that we cannot improve on the tale as told in his 
own words. 

"Mission Creek, a small town on the St. P. & D. 
R. R. south of Hinckley had a narrow escape. 

Standing on the little hill in the center of our small 
berg on the forenoon of September 1st, large clouds 
of smoke could be seen rising from brush burning- 
to the south-west. Our people had sniffed smoke 
all summer and were little alarmed, if any, at this 



POKEGAMA AND MISSION CREEK. 71 

usual sight. The light breeze blowing in the morn- 
ing grew stronger as the hours went by until at 
twelve o'clock a hurricane was bearing down up- 
on us from the direction of the fire. A solid mass 
of dry pine choppings and underbrush, augmented 
here and there with a few hundred tons of hay, 
furnished ample food for the hungry hell which was 
approaching. The settlers came in to the station 
for protection as they had fears that the* wind 
might drive the fire upon them on their little claims. 
We commenced fighting the flames early, but the 
effort to quench them was futile. At half past two 
the St. Paul & Duluth south-bound passenger went 
past the station, but none of our people left. The 
train couldn't have gone half a mile from the depot 
when a roaring wall of fire bore down on our little 
hamlet. The fifty people were taken to Laird & 
Boyle's potato patch south of the depot. The 
patch contains only two acres, but it afforded a 
safe, though excessively hot, refuge for our band. 
Everyone laid face downward in the furrows, and 
the fire swept over to the houses and mill property. 
The refuges remained in their trying positions un- 
til the fire had swept everything in sight and passed 
on to its work of death and destruction to the 
north. We took a retrospective view of the situat- 
ion which met us, but could do nothing, so pro- 
ceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. 
The section men arrived on the scene in a few hours 



72 SANDSTONE, PARTRIDGE, SANDSTONE J UNC. 

time. They brought with them a fine large deer 
which became entangled in the barbed wire fence 
while fleeing before the fire and had died there. We 
dug potatoes and with the welcome venison ate a 
hearty supper. Excepting the pain in our eyes, 
none were suffering from the effect of the heat and 
smoke. Our party went to Pine City on the work 
train in the evening. The loss of property at 
Mission Creek was heavy, but the place was fortu- 
nate as being the only one wiped out of existence 
in which the mortuary list does not roll up a large 
percentage of the population. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN 




road in Wisconsin. 



T the time the fire fiend was 
advancing with such rapid 
strides upon Hinckley and her 
sister towns in Minnesota, 
similar scenes were being en- 
acted in a similar fashion a 
bout sixty miles east of Hinck- 
ley on the line of the Omaha 
It is needless for me to go into 
details in the description of the fire itself in this 
section of the country lying between Cumberland 
and Ashland. The same hurricane wind was ex- 
perienced, the same wave of heat that has been 
heretofore described, and the fiend advanced upon 
the unsuspecting inhabitants with the same stride 
of almost incredible rapidity. 

One difference or, I might say, one characteristic, 
which was rather more noticeable in the eastern 
fire, was that the fire burned in strips, leaving a 

73 



74 THE FIRK IN WISCONSIN. 

mile or two of unburned forest which lay not 
diiectly in the path of the wind which carried its 
blaze directly in front of it. So that through the 
entire section which is shown on the map as the 
fire district, perhaps one-fourth or one-third of the 
area has not been burned over, but has been burned 
around and left like an oasis in a desert. 

The region affected by the fire in Wisconsin, was 
what might readily be termed new country. Very 
little of it was settled at all and what few settle- 
ments there were had been made in the last decade. 

Lumber was, of course, as yet the principal pro- 
duce of the region and the lumber interests had 
built the railroads and developed the country . An 
immense amount of timber had annually been cut 
and shipped from the section, and of late years the 
grain and hay products were of no small import- 
ance. The soil was a little sandy but the pine 
land is good strong soil and will raise, under ordi- 
nary conditions, good fair crops of all the small 
grains as well as vegetables, berries etc., and quite 
a little of the husbandman's attention had been 
given to horticulture although the country was 
not yet old enough to permit of the raising of these 
products to a very great extent. 

While it is true that the greatest loss of life from 
fire was felt in Minnesota, it is also true that the 
greatest area was burned over in Wisconsin. 

The origin of the eastern blaze is not generally 



THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN 75 

known. It was, however, in the region a little to 
the north-west of Rice Lake and north-east from 
Cumberland. Neither of these two burgs were in- 
jured to any great extent but both were close 
enough to the fire to feel its heat and become 
alarmed at its awful power. 

Barronett was a village of about five hundred 
people, on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & 
Omaha railroad, about eight miles from Cumber- 
land on Vermillion river. Most of the houses in 
the town as well as the store etc., were owned by 
the Barronett Lumber Co., part of the We}^er- 
hauser syndicate who owned and operated a large 
mill at Barronett. At a few minutes after two 
o'clock the afternoon of Sept. 1st, two passenger 
trains, due at Barronett at two o'clock, where 
they met and passed each other, were standing on 
the track. They were both a little late on that 
day and for once, at least, it was fortunate for the 
people of the town that they were. The smoke 
and heat had been steadily increasing until -when 
the trains arrived the people had become thor- 
oughly alarmed and were ready and willing to 
grasp any opportunity which would take them 
out of danger. As soon as it became apparent 
that the town was doomed the men in charge of 
the company's store threw the doors wide open 
and told the inhabitants to help themselves. A 
few availed themselves of the opportunity but 



76 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 

most of them had their hands mil in escaping 
themselves and seeing that their families were in a 
place of safety. All, with the exception of a very 
few, some three or four men got aboard either one 
train or the other and escaped, with, in most 
cases, what clothes they had on their backs, and 
nothing more. 

Most of the residents of Barronett were mill 
hands, never forehanded and usually rather poor 
than otherwise. Most of the people went south 
to Cumberland, a few to Shell Lake and a few more 
to Spooner. Only one life was lost in Barronett, 
a man by the name of Aleck Erickson staid behind 
to fight the fire and after it had passed was found 
lying face downward, where he had been overcome 
by the heat, within twenty feet of his own door. 

In an interview with one F. S. Staub, overseer of 
the mill of the Barronett Lumber Co., he stated 
he v^as one of the men who staid in Barronett 
through the entire maelstrom of fire. He was run- 
ning the pump of the mill and staid by as long as 
possible, when he filled the boilers full of water 
and with a companion ran for the ditch beside the 
railroad track where they staid until the next 
morning before they dared to emerge or move a- 
bout among the ruins. He stated that the fire 
reached the town at about half-past two and at 
a quarter past three there was nothing left but 
heaps of glowing ashes scattered here and there, 



THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 7T 

which marked the spots where the houses or lum- 
ber piles had been only such a short time before. 

Shell Lake, Wisconsin, on the Omaha road a- 
bout eighteen miles north of Cumberland had per- 
haps as a town the narrowest escape that is to be 
chronicled. The smoke had been thick all the mor- 
ning and as the afternoon came on, the fire was 
seen approaching the town and it was met by the 
towns-people and kept at bay in the woods about 
half a mile south of the town until five o'clock, 
when in spite of the combined efforts of the towns- 
people it crept into the Shell Lake Lumber Co/s 
hay meadow and then it fairly leaped until it had 
crossd the wagon road. Here it was met by a 
most stubborn resistance and the efforts of the 
fire-fighters were here crowned with success and 
the fire was kept away from the south side of the 
town, thus saving from destruction the entire bus- 
iness portion of the town and an immense amount 
of property from the flames. There were no fatal- 
ities at Shell Lake. In all there were fifty-three 
buildings burned and $100,000 worth of property 
destroyed. 

One incident which took place at Shell Lake de- 
serves to be recorded in a book higher than thisy 
where all the good deeds are shown. It seems at 
the time of the approach of the fire, a widow, a 
Mrs. Tawney, fifty-three years of age, was living 
in the part of the town which was in the immed- 



78 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 

iate danger from the flames, her son, a lad of nine- 
teen was very sick with typhoid fever at the time, 
and the mother, who had acted as nurse all through 
his illness would not leave the bedside of her boy. 
When it became apparent that the house was 
actually going, she wrapped him in a blanket and 
taking him in her arms carried him into the garden 
where she laid him and carried water in a dinner 
pail (the only thing she had saved from the house) 
and kept his clothes and her own from burning 
and also used it to carry water to put out the blaze 
as it started in her barn. She kept her vigil by the 
boy's side in the garden until about mid-night, 
when feeling sure that the barn was safe she car- 
ried him in there, where he remained until relief 
was brought to them. A deed of heroism not 
surpassed even in this section where heroes and 
heroines were so plenty. 

Comstock, another station on the Omaha road 
south of Cumberland, scarcely deserving the name 
of a town at all, was completly wiped out, not a 
single building of any description being left in the 
place. The loss to Comstock and to the farming 
community adjacent to it is estimated at $75,000. 

Cable is a small town on the Omaha road in 
Bayfield County. It laid directly in the path of 
the fire and was almost totally destroyed by the 
flames. Cable is quite a railroad town, being on 
the top of a steep grade, and is known among rail- 



THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 79 

road men as "the top of the hill" in pulling heavy 
trains from Bayfield. Its loss was thirteen hous- 
es and a railroad building. It had a population 
of two hundred people and was about one hundred 
and fifty miles from St. Paul. Hey ward was not 
touched by the flames nor was the country adjac- 
ent to it. 

Drummond, in Bayfield County about ten miles 
north of Cable, was in the center of a heavy strip 
of timber but for some reason was not even scorch- 
ed by the flames. In passing through on the line 
of the Omaha road, the oasis at Drummond is quite 
a noticeable feature, the fire having practically de- 
stroyed everything around it while nothing in its 
immediate vicinity is harmed m the least. 

With the exception of Barronett, Mason prob- 
ably suffered more severely from the fire than any 
point on the Omaha road. Mason was a live town 
of five or six hundred people, one hundred and sev- 
enty-six miles from St. Paul. It is the junction of 
the C. St. P. M. & 0. R. R. and the D. S. Sh. & Ath 
R. R. The town was almost totally destroyed by 
the fire, the large saw mill and plant, together with 
a large amount of lumber of the White River 
Lumber Co., was totally destroyed together with 
all the other buildings in the town with the excep- 
tion of the depot and one or two dwellings which 
alone remain to mark the spot where Mason had 
stood. Mason was a timber town being almost 



80 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 

exclusively dependent upon the lumber interests 
for its support. Benoit Station or Peck, between 
Mason and Ashland was almost totally de- 
stroyed. 

Ashland itself had a very narrow escape from 
being burned in part at least. The fire advanced 
within the city limits and the fire department was 
kept very busy for some time in saving the town. 
The smoke was very dense for several days, and at 
the time the fire was at its height the boats on 
the lake did not dare to leave their docks, and the 
din of their fog-horns and whistles was something 
almost deafening. 

Washburn, across the bay from Ashland did 
not escape entirely unscathed, in fact, had a very 
close call from being totally destroyed. Smoke 
had hung heavy over the town for several days 
and when the flames actually came up to the edge 
of the town, every one was on the alert and volun- 
teer fire fighters were plenty. The wind was 
blowing a perfect gale, but in spite of that fact the 
fire was kept in check for some time, when sud- 
denly fire was discovered in Cook & Co's. Dock 
No. 3 or the one farthest north. It having caught 
from a spark from the fire south of the town. It 
was discovered in good season, and steps were 
immediately taken to fight it, but in the terrific 
wind it spread through those piles of lumber with 
the speed of a race horse, and it was impossible to 



THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 81 

get to work in time to keep the flames from spread- 
ing to Bigelow & Co's. Docks. This company has 
four large lumber docks at Washburn, and al- 
most in less time than it takes to tell it, air four 
were one huge sheet of flame. Fifteen million feet 
of lumber makes a bonfire larger than is usually 
seen, and eye-witnesses describe the burning of 
these lumber docks as one of the most magnificent 
spectacles that was ever witnessed. Finding their 
efforts to save the docks were useless the firemen 
made a heroic fight to save Bigelow & Co's. mill, 
and their efforts in this direction were successful so 
that Washburn's loss was confined exclusively to 
: these lumber docks. When the flames were at 
their height Ashland sent an engine and hose to the 
assistance of Washburn, and had it not been for 
this fact it is altogether probable that the whole 
town would have been destroyed. 

At Parishville 500,000 feet of lumber together 
with Kennedy's mill were burned. Dynamite was 
used to prevent the spreading of .the flames to ad- 
jacent plants, and by this means the fire was con- 
fined to Kennedy's yard. 

Just how much damage was done in this section 
by the fire it is impossible to determine; and it is 
difficult for one to have any accurate conception 
of extent of the calamity and of how general and 
severe were its effects. Hardly a village in the 
whole region known as Northern Wisconsin 



82 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 

escaped from its ravages, all having been injured 
to a greater or less extent, and the fire even found 
its way across the State line into Gogebec and 
Ontonagon Counties in Northern Michigan. The 
damage to the railroad companies in the loss of 
bridges, telegraph poles, ties, fences, etc., is simply 
enormous. It is almost a wonder that they suc- 
ceeded in resuming their train service as soon as 
they did. All were utterly demoralized after the 
fire had passed and all communication was shut 
off for a time along all the lines. 

A huge trestle three-quarters of a mile in 
length on the Duluth South Shore and Atlantic 
was burned at Marengo, which will cripple that 
road more or less for some time. 

Iron River, a thriving town of about 700 peo- 
ple on the Northern Pacific Railroad, midway be- 
tween Duluth and Ashland had a narrow escape, 
and even as it was lost eighteen or twenty dwell- 
ings and a saw-mill. The inhabitants had ex- 
pected something of the sort and were prepared to 
fight, but for a time they were fighting almost 
against hope. Brule suffered from the fire. An 
immense amount of damage being done in the 
magnificent tracts of pine lands along the Brule 
River, and numbers of homestead shanties and 
lumber camps with their contents being totally de- 
stroyed. Port Wing and Clevedau are also exten- 
sive losers from the fire fiend. 



THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 8: ! 

Granite Lake is a station on the Omaha road 
between Barronett and Cumberland and met a 
similar fate as that of her sister town Barronett 
almost simultaneously. No loss of life is reported 
but considerable loss of property in the shape of 
lumber, buildings, etc., aggregating in all some 
$50,000. All the inhabitants with their Barronett 
neighbors escaped to Cumberland. 

The following is a list of towns more or less 
affected by the fire not already mentioned: 
Phillips, Prentice, Winchester, Fifield, Park Falls, 
Butternut, Glidden, Miller, High Bridge, Plummer 
and Iron Belt, Ironwood, Hurley, Gile, Saxon, 
Odanah, Sanborn, Marengo, Sedgwick, Bayfield, 
Houghton, Ashland Junction, Moquah, Ino, 
Poplar, Itasca, Pratt, Agnew and Altamont. 

On September 6th, five days after the first incep- 
tion of the great fire, rain fell over the entire 
burned district, and where the fire had not already 
burned everything inflamable, it put a quietus 
upon it, which kept it from spreading further, and 
the more copious rains which followed in the next 
few days effectually checked the flames. This 
timely shower was welcomed by all, both for the 
quietus it put on the fire and on account of the 
crops which were suffering from a lack of moisture. 

From High Bridge on the Wisconsin Central 
road comes a story sad indeed. The family of 
Isaac Towney, consisting of himself, his wife and 



34 THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 

five children besides his son-in-law Bargron, who 
liad married To wney 's oldest daughter only a short 
time before, and had taken up his abode with his 
wife in a cabin only a short distance from the 
paternal roof. On the morning before the fire 
Towney, Bargron and a neighbor named McLean 
had been fighting fire and had endeavored to save 
Towney's hay and some 4,000 cedar posts which 
he had cut ready for market. When the fire 
came the neighbor was some distance from 
the Towney family and made an attempt to reach 
his own home, but finally reached the railroad 
track and lying down in the ditch escaped with 
his life. The Towney's were not so fortunate how- 
ever. Within twenty feet of the house was a fifty 
foot well, containing a foot or two of water at 
the time of the fire. Into this well were thrown 
feather beds, blankets, etc., and all the members of 
the Towney family proceeded to get into what 
they supposed to be a place of safety, but which 
proved to be a veritable oven from which there 
was no escape. When they were taken out their 
bodies had been burned to a crisp, not a limb 
remaining to any of the trunks and the whitened 
skulls of the younger members demonstrating the 
degree of heat to which they had been subjected. 
It is more than probable though that death came 
to them in the more merciful form of suffocation, 
than from that of the heat itself. 



THE FIRE IN WISCONSIN. 85 

Although Wisconsin was not called upon to pro- 
vide for but few refugees as compared to her sister 
State, her Governor, Mr. Peck, immediately issued 
a proclamation to the citizens under his jurisdic- 
tion, stating the facts and asking that voluntary 
contributions be sent to Col: W. J. Boyle, Secre- 
tary of the Relief Committee at Milwaukee. Col. 
Boyle was secretary of. a similar commission which 
had been appointed to render a similar service at 
the time the town of Phillips was destroyed a 
month previous to this time. Steps were imme- 
diately taken to furnish relief to those in need, 
both temporarily and permanently, and it, can 
truly be said that Wisconsin was not behind her 
neighbor in furnishing the wherewithal to care for 
her afflicted. 

Registration showed about two hundred desti- 
tute people at Ashland and as many more at 
Cumberland and Spooner, together with some at 
Superior. All were adequately provided for by con- 
tributions received from all sources, although 
some little dissatisfaction was expressed by the 
committee at the action of Gov. Peck in issuing a 
manifesto stating that Wisconsin was able to 
take care of her own, and needed no outside 
assistance the feeling being that he did not fully 
appreciate or understand the condition of the 
destitute sufferers . 



CHAPTER VIII. 
AFTER THE FIRE. 




FTERthe first frenzied 
onslaught of the fire 
had passed and the suf 
fering survivors dared 
leave their place of re- 
fuge and endeavor to 
find either their friends 
or some trace whereby 
it would be possible to determine where they had 
been and how it had fared with them; a sight of 
desolation met their eyes which is better imagined 
than described. Many of them feared to leave 
their asylum until the gray of the morning dawn- 
ed when they came out more dead than alive, 
smarting from burns, blinded with smoke and faint 
from hunger and exhaustion. 

Desolation, bleak and unbending, nothing but 
ashes, stumps and remains of individuals less for- 

86 






AFTER THE FIRE. 87 

ttnate than themselves lay on all sides. Every- 
where in every direction could be seen nothing but 
the ravages of the flames. They had no idea of 
the extent of the loss of life until morning dawned 
when the daylight brought a realization of the 
magnitude and awfulness of the disaster and what 
a narrow thread had held them to this earthly ex- 
istance, and the appreciation made them fairly 
sick at heart. They could not speak, no one could 
utter a word, God in his infinite goodness seemed 
to have literally tempered the wind to the shorn 
lambs, and they went about in a half-dazed con- 
dition without the appreciation or realization of 
sights which would under ordinary circumstances 
have brought tears to the eyes and melted a heart 
of stone. And had it not been for the generous and 
timely assistance and relief that was accorded from 
the outside world their condition would have in- 
deed been much more serious than ever, and would 
have multiplied in ten fold ratio as the hours went 
by. They had in truth, been saved from a death 
by fire, but most of them escaped with only the 
clothes on their backs. 

As has been stated, the people of Hinckley had 
no idea of the immense fatality of the fire. When 
they came out of the gravel pit the prevailing idea 
was that there had been but little loss of life. They 
knew that a great number of people had been saved 
by the Eastern Minnesota train, and when Mr. 



8S AFTER THE FIRE: 

Al. Frazer came from the dry marsn and reported 
the awful calamity that had happened there, they 
cotdd hardly believe it. Mr. Frazer even, under-es- 
timated the loss, as he reported that there were 
as many as forty people burned to death in the 
marsh. Subsequent developments however show- 
ed the number to be one hundred and twenty-six. 

The sight of ninety-six bodies piled up in one 
heap ready for burial, all charred and burned be- 
yond recognition and all destined for one common 
grave, was one that can never be forgotten by 
those who took part in the interment. The man- 
ner of burial will be refered to later under the head 
of reminiscences where we print Mr. Webber's ex- 
periences at the fire. 

Everything available in any way, either as food 
or clothing had been consumed and the long night 
of suffering and exposure was something terrible 
to be considered, to the women and children who 
were not used to what is termed here in the West 
"roughing it," but had been accustomed to all 
the luxuries of a civilized home. 

No comparison can be made of this and other 
great calamities of a fiery nature. In the Chicago 
fire there was a place of safety; somewhere to go 
and plenty of food and provision for all the suf- 
ferers; but here there was no alternative but to go 
through the fiery furnace and even those whose 
bodies were immersed in water were burned and 



AFTER THE FIRE. S9 

scorched about the head and face and suffered ter- 
rible agony from breathing the over-heated 
atmosphere. 

All of the survivors tell the same story. "The 
very air seemed to be ablaze." At the gravel pit 
the Presbyterian pastor at Hinckley found half a 
dozen half burned water-melons and they were de- 
voured eagerly by the famished people while his 
estimable wife, milked one of the cows, that had 
taken refuge in the pit and the little milk ob- 
tained served to keep body and soul of the little 
ones in the pit together until morning, or until re- 
lief arrived. After a little time the water tank 
at the Eastern Minnesota Round House was dis- 
covered to be left standing and the water here ob- 
tained helped to. alleviate the sufferings of the 
bereaved people. 

The first actual news of the holocaust at Hinck- 
ley received by the outside world was taken to 
Pine City by several of those who had escaped in 
the gravel pit. They took a hand-car and started 
toward their destination, and after much labor 
caused by twisted rails, burned culverts and fallen 
trees, the party succeeded in reaching Pine City at 
about eleven o'clock in the evening of the Saturday 
that the fire occured, and in less than twenty-four 
hours from the time the fire burst upon them, the 
citizens of St. Paul and Minneapolis had a train 
loaded with provisions, clothing and everything 



90 AFTER THE FIRE. 

conceivable, necessary for the immediate alleviation 
of the wants of the suffering people at the scene of 
the disaster, manned by a number of the most ac- 
tive and prominent citizens and physicians of the 
two cities. They were however not the first to ar- 
rive upon the scene nor the first to respond to the 
call for aid. Pine City was first appealed to and 
she responded nobly to supply the wants and ne- 
cessities her sister city was in such dire need of. 

The news that Hinckley was totally destroyed 
spread like wild fire and every individual resident 
of Pine City prepared in some way to assist in the 
alleviation of the sufferings of the unfortunate sur- 
vivors. The St. Paul & Duluth Railroad had a 
train waiting to get through to Hinckley at the 
earliest possible moment, and upon this train was 
taken everything possible in the way of food, cloth- 
ing and anything that mind could conceive would 
be useful or available in the awful extremity which 
had been brought upon this unfortunate band of 
people. About half of the population of the town 
of Pine City were on board, some as mere cur- 
iosity seekers but more to do what could be done 
in adding balm to the wounded spirits they were 
soon to meet. 

The advance toward Hinckley was necessarily 
slow, as every little culvert had to be re-built and 
repaired and oft-times it was found necessary to 
drive an ocasional spike beside the rail before it 



AFTER THE FIRE. 91 

was deemed safe for the train to pass over it. So 
after a very slow and tediotis journey through the 
darkness of the night and the still smoking ruins 
the relief train reached Hinckley at about three 
o'clock in the morning. 

Dante's Inferno could not have presented a 
more horrible and heart-rending spectacle than 
was laid before the eyes of these Pine City citizens 
on their errand of mercy. The air was still heavy 
with smoke and the heat was still quite noticeable. 
Everything was dark save where the coal docks of 
the railroad companies had stood and these pre- 
sented a peculiarly bright and lurid glare against 
the dark back-ground of the blackened earth and 
darkened sky, as the stock of coal kept in them 
burned itself out. 

They immediately set to work among the ruins 
to feed the survivors, find the injured and get them 
aboard the train where they could be taken to a 
place of safety, and better facilities could be 
afforded for their care and comfort than was pos- 
sible here. Most of the survivors who could walk 
now congregated in the only building left standing 
at Hinckley save the water-tank house on the 
Eastern Minnesota Railway. Parties had begun 
to come in from the surrounding country. Now 
and again a straggling one alone, too often the 
only one left to tell the tale of the sufferings of a 
family; again in bunches of two or three or even 



92 AFTER THE FIRE. 

more as some family more fortunate than the rest 
had kept the flock together and had escaped the 
fury of the flames. All were more or less injured, 
few had scarcely any clothes on their backs, all 
were nearly blinded from smoke and heat, and fairly 
famished from hunger and thirst. A great many 
had saved their lives by lying in some muddy pool 
and what the fire left undone to add to their gen- 
eral look of despondent delapidation had been ac- 
complished by the mud and water which had 
streaked and begrimmed their bodies and faces till 
it was difficult to recognize even the best of friends 
under the circumstances. And the sight of the 
dead was far more ghastly and revolting than the 
visage of the living. 

Death on all sides. The grim reaper was no re- 
specter of persons. All classes were represented 
among his victims. Lying where they fell, most of 
them in an attitude which would tend to show the 
awful anxiety of the moment either for their own 
safety or that of a loved one. Cases were fre- 
quent where the positions of the bodies showed 
conclusively that the unfortunates had met death 
with their dying thoughts ones of anxiety, not 
for themselves, but for the loved ones they 
would protect from all possible harm. Hastily 
taking in a survey of the situation the members of 
the relief board went to work with a will, for 
work was plenty and there was enough to be done 




" '• IB ■ 



AFTER THE FIRE. 93 

to keep all willing hands busy for da} r s. Kno wing- 
that the dead were beyond their help they directed 
their energies to seeking out and caring for the in- 
jured. After all that could be taken aboard had 
been placed on the train, with a part of the Pine 
City relief corps, it pulled back to Pine City, taking 
out the first load of the survivors who actually 
went through the whole of the fire. 

Immediately upon the arrival at Pine City of the 
train loaded with the wounded survivors, the 
skating rink was turned into an impromptu hospi- 
tal and the lower part of the Knights of Pythias 
Hall in the town was used as a cook-house for the 
sufferers. The ladies of Pine City, young and old 
came to the front as with one impulse, to do what 
they could to relieve the afflicted, and they did not 
relax their vigil until the responsibility had been 
lifted from their shoulders, and the sufferers were, 
either able to take care of themselves or had been 
otherwise provided for. A number of them staid 
at their post by the cook stove all Saturday 
night so that they had a good warm breakfast, 
sufficient to supply all of the hundreds of unfortu- 
nates who were brought to Pine City the morning 
after the fire. By Sunday noon every person who 
had been brought out of the fire district had been 
properly fed and cared for, with the assistance of 
Rush City which had come in to bear her share of 
the burden in the shape of provisions, and with 



94 AFTER THE FIRE. 

her staff of surgeons, who proved very efficient in 
their endeavors to allay the smarting and burning 
of the blistered epidermis. While this was. going 
on the work of biinging in and burying the dead 
was being pushed as fast as possible by detach- 
ments of men who had been detailed for that 
service at Hinckley. Bodies were being found and 
brought in from all directions. Every effort was 
made to identify them, but identification was out 
of the question, unless by some metal article or 
trinket that was found near or upon the bodies. 
A strict record was kept of them and they were 
then turned over to the burial committee at the 
cemetary under the supervision of F. G. Webber, 
who did a noble work in this capacity, which from 
its very nature was one of the most horrible 
duties that ever devolved upon a human being. 
The first three days after the fire were very warm 
and dry, and it was found to be absolutely neces- 
sary from a sanitary point of view that the bodies 
should all be intered at the earliest possible mom- 
ent, and to this end Mr. Webber staid at his post 
without rest or sleep for three days and three 
nights, or until the work had been practically 
accomplished. After the dead in the immediate 
neighborhood of the town itself had been intered 
parties were sent out over the surrounding country 
to find the remains and bury the victims in the 
farming districts. They were buried where they 




JiRIXC.IXt; THI- SURVIVORS TO PINE CITY 



AFTER THE FIRE. 95 

were found, and a board placed with the name of 
the victim on each grave when there was anything 
found to make it possible to identify the body. 
Accurate data as to the interment was also kept 
and hied with the commissioner. 

We will now return to the survivors of Jim 
Root's train at Skunk Lake who were undergoing 
sufferings more extreme and more terrible, if possi- 
ble, than those of their colleagues at Hinckley. 
After leaving the train and reaching the friendly 
waters of that mud-hole their sufferings for four 
hours in that marsh are terrible beyond descrip- 
tion. At the first burst of the flame some one 
shouted "get under the water for your lives." A 
command which all obeyed, some even submerging 
themselves entirely for an instant until the worst 
was past. They had scarcely reached the water, 
when in a seconds time, the smoke which had been 
so black and dense that as a survivor said "one 
could not see his hand held up before his face," 
seemed to explode and burst into a seething sheet 
of flame, consuming the gases in the air and ignit- 
ing everything infiamable, and attended by a 
crackling and hissing sound truly diabolical. A 
wall of flame on all sides, seemingly twenty feet 
high hemmed in the little asylum in which these 
people had sought safety. After the smoke had 
cleared away a little the coaches could be seen on 
the track blazing furiously, and in the course of a 



96 AFTER THE FIRE. 

short time the heat from them became so intense 
and terrific that the unfortunates were again com- 
pelled to immerse themselves entirely in order to 
make the heat even endurable. How the women 
and children ever survived the terrible ordeal will 
always be a mystery, but there were men enough 
in the party to keep them drenched with water, 
and as some unfortunate became overcome and 
swooned there was a clear head and a strong arm 
to support and assist them until the terrible period 
of heat had passed. 

Still it was too hot for them to leave the water 
and four hours of mortal agony passed before 
they even attempted to do so, and when the time 
finally came and they dared leave the lake, they 
did so gradually and by degrees retreating first to 
the shallow water, then to the mud, then to the 
damp ground, and finally high and dry upon the 
ground itself. If these people had but known it 
there was a much larger body of water on the 
other side of the track but a little distance away 
where they would have suffered much less if they 
had gotten to it. But in the awful moment of 
leaving the train nobody thought of it, and perhaps 
nobody knew of it and of course it was impossible 
to see any distance away. Atthis time, themenin 
the party took a hasty survey of the band to decide 
who were the best able to goto Pine City for help. 
The lot fell upon three traveling men who hap- 



AFTER THE FIRE. 7 

pened to be on board the ill-fated train, Mr. 
James E. Lobdell of St. Paul, a Mr. Holt of 
Duluth and a Mr. Anderson of Minneapolis, as 
being the strongest men physically in the party, 
and the best able and best fitted for this battle 
royal with the elements in the shape of a fifteen 
mile walk over burned ties and amid smoking 
ruins to a place of safety, and to bring relief to 
their suffering fellow-men. It was no small under- 
taking. Fires were still burniug on all sides and 
the smoke was still thick and the night was very 
dark, yet these men taking some clothing which 
had been saved by the convulsive grasp of a 
traveling salesman, upon, what one might almost 
call a part of his anatomy, his grip, tore into 
strips and wrapped it around their feet an ankles 
so that they were well protected from the burning 
cinders, etc., and wetting their coats and wrap- 
piug them about their heads, the}^ started their 
perilous journey to Pine City. 

It was indeed an awful and a gruesome task. 
They wended their way with much difficulty back 
to where the town had been, through the still 
burning forests stumbling along, bearly escaping 
instant death by the fall of a telegraph pole or a 
giant tamarac as they gave up the ghost 
to the grim monster, and in the interval be- 
tween Skunk Lake and Hinckley they counted 
twentv-nine bodies. Some of these unfortunates 



98 AFTER THE FIRE, 

had been riding on the platform and overcome 
by the heat, they had dropped to their death 
on the tracks below, others were those of the 
passengers already mentioned who became in- 
sane during the flight toward Skunk Lake, and 
had thrown themselves through the car-windows, 
and still others were settlers through the country 
who thought their only safety lay in reaching the 
town, and they had died upon the track in their 
attempt to do so. The bridge across the river at 
Hinckley they did not dare attempt to cross, so 
they endeavored to find a skiff or something with 
which they might succeed in crossing the stream , 
they found nothing that would avail them any- 
thing however, and after taking off the burned 
clothes from their feet and such clothes as would 
impede their progress the^- started to wade the 
stream which is very shallow at this time of the 
year. On the way across five bodies were dis- 
covered, one woman, two men and two children. 
After six miles of the most awful experiences, and 
a period covering an hour and forty minutes time 
they reached the round-house at Hinckley, which 
was the only vestige that remained, aside from the 
twisted track itself that would even suggest that 
this had been the center of a civilized community. 
Everything was still as death, and our heroes 
entered the round-house and threw themselves on 
the earthern floor of its friendly protection where 



AFTER THE FIRE. 



99 



they remained for about half an hour for they 
were nearly exhausted, when they once more 
resumed their journey to Mission Creek first and 
then to Pine City. They had gone but a short dis- 
tance from Hinckley when they discovered an 
abandoned hand car which they appropriated and 
pushed on to Mission Creek with it. A few miles 
farther on they met the work train and informed 
the trainmen of the terrible plight of the passen- 
gers of the Duluth Limited at Skunk Lake, 

The work train took them back to Pine City 
where an expedition was immediately organized 
for the relief of the suffering unfortunates on board 
Jim Root's train. The news bearers were kindly 
cared for and given medical assistance, and went 
to St. Paul by the first special, arriving there 
about three o'clock in the afternoon or about 
twenty-four hours after the calamity occurred. 
Mr. Anderson, one of the three who made this trip 
which we have just described was himself a loser 
to the extent of $20,000 which he had with him in 
the shape of government bonds, which were of 
course burned with his grip. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 




he first train from 
Saint Paul to 
Pine Cit}^ after 
the fire was a 
special consist- 
ing of one bag- 
gage car and 
one coach be- 
sides the engine 
and ran out on 
the Duluth 
road about 1:25 Sunday morning. It was in no 
sense a relief train, but was run out in the interest 
of the road, and conveyed L. S. Miller, assistant 
general manager, and also the road-master of the 
Duluth road. At a quarter past eleven on a bright 
Sunday morning, Tarns Bixby, the governor's pri- 
vate secretaiw, received a telegram from Pine City, 
stating something in regard to the extent of the fire 
and asking immediate assistance from St. Paul 

100 



SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 101 

and her sister city, Minneapolis. They responded 
nobly, as in the lapse, of the short period of four 
and a half hours a special- train was standing 
on a side-track at the St. Paul Depot loaded with 
everything that was deemed necessary and useful, 
ready to start for the scene of the disaster. Im- 
mediately upon receipt of the telegram , a short con- 
sultation was held between Governor Nelson, Mr. 
Bixby and Mr. Harris Richardson of St. Paul and 
a plan of action was decided on which was put 
into execution ; and in less than fifteen minutes Mr. 
Bixb\- was making the telephone wires warm in 
his endeavor to locate a number of the large whole- 
salers of the town and gain from them the goods 
which alone could relieve the sufferers in the burned 
district. P. H. Kelly and George R. Finch were 
notified of the situation as was also Capt. W. H. 
Hart of the National Guard of the State of Minne- 
sota and Capt. Bunker. The Hackett Hardware 
Co., was also enlisted in the hurried canvas, and 
by three o'clock in the afternoon a special was 
standing on a track at the Union Depot in St. Paul 
and men and wagons were busy loading it with 
goods of every conceivable description that would 
be available under such circumstances . There were 
boxes, crates and barrels, sacks and boxes galore, 
blankets, ftying pans, coffee, pots, knives, forks, 
plates, tea, coffee, sugar, bacon, beans, flour, corn- 
ed beef, salt, crackers, and twenty-five hundred 



1 2 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 

loaves of bread. Everything that could be furnish- 
ed a stricken people was readily donated and 
forwarded as quickly as men could work and steam- 
could carry it to the scene of the disaster. Mr. 
Bixby telegraphed Mr. Hodge, the chairman of 
the Pine City Relief Committee inquiring of him 
what was needed for the relief of the sufferers 
The reply came with a list of just such things as 
had already been furnished with the exception of 
one item, " money " a goodly sum of which was 
taken up by the committee who accompanied this 
first car-load of provisions to the scene. The relief 
train left the depot at about four o'clock in the 
afternoon, Sunday, Sept. 2nd or just twenty-four 
hours from the time the fire broke over Hinckley 
with its hurricane of fury. It was accompanied 
by a committee of St. Paulites composed of H. D. 
Davis, P. H. Kelly, Lane K. Stone, Geo. R. Finch, 
Harris Richardson, Jules H. Burwell, I). H. Moon, 
Dr.R. H. Wheaton, C. R. Smith, J. G. Donnelly 
the undertaker and two assistants, Capt. Bunker, 
a detachment of ten volunteers from Company C, 
1st Regt. N. G. S. M., under Capt. Montfort and v 
representatives of the Twin City Press . The Union 
Depot in the vicinity of the train presented quite a 
lively and peculiar spectacle just before the de- 
parture of the train for the relief. The platform 
was crowded with spectators who had by some 
means or other become aware of the awful calam 



SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 1*>3 

ity which had taken place so near home, and 
had gathered here to view the efforts that were 
being made to alleviate the suffering of their broth- 
ers in the northern pines; and it was a curious 
spectacle that presented itself. In one end of the 
car were piled stacks of bread clear to the very 
ceiling carefully guarded from the dirt by cloths 
and papers, while the other end presented a mot- 
ley array of things edible and useful. The car 
was more than full and it was found necessary to 
call into service the half of the next car before 
all the provisions were taken on board. After 
having pulled out from the depot the Relief train 
stopped in the lower yard and coupled on a sleep- 
er after which the train hastened on its errand of 
mercy to its destination. The need of tents had 
been anticipated for the shelter of not only the 
sufferers but the crowd of curious spectators who 
flocked to Pine City by every train on one pretext 
or another, some looking for a lost one, some seek- 
ing to help anyone and others from mere idle cur- 
iosity and this latter class were by no means in 
the minority. 

Arrangements were immediatly made by Capt. 
Hart, Brigadier-Quartermaster, to have the use of 
the tents belonging to the State, used by the 
National Guard at their annual encampment at 
Lake City, at which point the tents still remained. 
The commissary at that point at once set to work 



104 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 

to ship the tents, one hundred and ninety in num- 
ber, to the scene, but for some reason or other the 
work was delayed so that the tents were not ship- 
ped until five o'clock in the afternoon. When they 
arrived in St. Paul they were immediately switched 
onto the Duluth track from the Milwaukee road 
and preparations were immediately made to send 
them out that night. It was then about eight 
o'clock in the evening, but word was received that 
Pine City had prepared a shelter for everyone that 
night so the train was held until about five o'clock 
the next morning when it left for the scene with 
another load of supplies and equipment of helpers. 
So much has been said in the past of soulless cor- 
porations, that it seems to me no more than right 
that the railroad companies intimately connected 
with this disaster should receive the commendation 
and credit they deserve for the manner in which 
they handled the affair. Placed as they were under 
conditions that handicapped them to so great an 
extent, in the shape of the total demoralization of 
all communication either postal or telegraphic 
with the doomed sections and the injury to their 
road-bed ircmi the burning of bridges, culverts, etc. 
although they were losers themselves to an enor- 
mous extent, they never faltered in their endeavor 
to succor those who were dependent upon them, 
but stood ready, eager and willing to offer every 
a ssistance in their power to those who were even less 



SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 105 

fortunate than they. All supplies were carried free 
of cost, not only as soon as the fire had passed, 
but as long as anything was still to be sent to the 
sufferers, and even at this time six weeks after the 
fire has passed they are still carrying the contri- 
butions of generous-hearted citizens to their ob- 
j ective destin ation . 

Too much commendation cannot be given the 
Press representatives for their untiring efforts in 
giving to the public a most authentic and full ac- 
count of the terrible conflagration. As it has no 
parallel in history so it is a fact, that no occurence 
of modern times has quickened the pulse of a na- 
tion or in fact the world, as has this fire. It is al- 
so a fact that never has a thing of this sort been 
more fully or minutely described by the press at 
large, and never has the wants of a needy people 
been more generously advertised than were those 
of the Hinckley fire sufferers at the hands of the 
Press of the world, or more especially the press of 
the cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth an'' 
West Superior. 

At White Bear the relief train stopped and took 
on more provisions and a number of Stillwater 
gentlemen who had come over to join the rescuing 
party, prominint among whom were Judge Neth- 
way, H. T. King, Dr. C. W. Merry and Geo. H. 
Sullivan. ' They immediatley pushed on and at 5:45 
were side-tracked at Rush City to make way for 



106 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 

the return of the train which had gone tip early in 
the day with Assistant General Manager Miller 
of the Duluth road on board. Mr. Miller had the 
relief train flagged in order to confer with those in 
charge of the provisions and give them a better 
idea of the extent of the damage and what they 
might expect they had to contend with. He told 
them to take the stores to Pine City, that they 
had a thoroughly organized relief committee there 
and that every effort was being made to get the 
sufferers to Pine City as soon as possible. One 
hundred gallons of milk were taken on at Rush 
City. The forest fires could still be seen blazing 
here and there as they advanced from Rush City, 
exhibiting a pyrotechnic display against the dark- 
ening horizon which would set at naught any at- 
tempt of man in that direction, and adding much 
that was weird and uncanny to the already dreary 
and desolate spectacle. They took the advice of 
Assistant General Manager Miller, and unloaded 
their supplies at Pine City, which was thus made 
the distributing point for the burned district. 
Upon arriving at Pine City they found a com- 
mittee of citizens of Pine City with the situation 
well in hand, composed of Joseph Hurley, J. F. 
Stone, E. A. Hough, H. Berchers and John Y. 
Breckenridge. The work train had returned from 
its trip up the road and the party on board 
reported what was needed most was food, and just 



SYSTEMATIC RELIEF 107 

such supplies ; as the relief train had brought. 
After a hurried canvass of the situation and render- 
ing what assistance was in its power the relief 
train left Pine City for St. Paul at about eleven 
o'clock in the evening, leaving behind a number of 
the St. Paul committee who were to take an active 
part in the relief operations that were to follow in 
the next few days. Nothing of interest or import- 
ance occurred on the return trip, and the train 
reached the St. Paul depot at about half past one 
on the morning of the third. After having seen 
that the wants of the sufferers were temporarily 
relieved, Gov. Nelson, promptly made preparations 
for the more serious duty of furnishing the un- 
fortunates with some permanent means of sup- 
port. A few had a little insurance, but most of 
them were left absolutely penniless. In many 
cages there was absolutely nothing left of the farm 
but the bare land and the mortgage, oft-times the 
farm had been consumed, that is to say, the top 
soil had been completely burned off, and a sterile 
expanse left in its place ; but tbe tenacity of the life 
of the mortgage cannot but be remarked upon . At 
this time when everything was needed and but 
little had been contributed, Gov. Nelson issued a 
proclamation to the people of the state requesting 
donations and appointing C. A. Pillsbury of 
Minneapolis, Kenneth Clark of St. Paul, Charles 
H. Graves of Duluth, Mathew G. Norton of Winona. 



108 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 

Hastings H. Hart of St. Paul, a commission in the 
name of the State to receive money and contribu- 
tions and forward them to Pine City. Almost 
simultaneously with this proclamation was one 
from Mayor Smith of St. Paul to the loyal citizens 
under his jurisdiction, setting forth the facts in a 
similar manner, and calling a public meeting to 
discuss matters and provide ways aud means to 
furnish the needed supplies and funds. Imme- 
diately upon the arrival of the St. Paul Relief 
Train the relief committee met with the Pine City 
Relief Committee and organized a general com- 
mittee in order to better understand and facilitate 
the work in hand. This committee was composed 
of Jas. Hurly, chairman ; J. F. Stone, J. Y. Brecken- 
ridge, E. A. Hough, H. Borchers, of Pine City; 
Joseph Mannix, Minneapolis ; H. E. Quinn, White 
Bear; J. C. Netheway, Stillwater; J. H. Burwell, 
Gen. C. S. Bunker, D. H. Moon, Lt. C. R.Smith, P. 
H. Kelly, Geo. R. Finch, Col. Laird of St. Paul; J. 
D. Markham, Rush City; and H. T. King, of Still- 
water. 

A number of other committees were also ap 
pointed as follows : 

COMMITTEE ON CARE OF DEAD. 

J. G. Donnelly, H. H. Hart, John E. Dougherty, 
St. Paul; H. D. Davis, Hinckley; H. G. Perkins, J. 
W. Hunt, Frank Webber, Father Burke, Dr. E. E. 
Baruum and John Carmon, of Pine City. 



SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 109 

LOCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Jas. Hurley, chairman; E. H. Hough and J. Y. 
Breckenridge, secretary. 

COMMITTEE ON PROVISIONS. 

F. A. Hodge, Wm. Smith, Wm. Brouse,John 
Vaughn, Otto Konalke. 

LADIES SUB-COMMITTEE. 

Mrs. H. J. Perkins, Mrs. F. A. Hodge, Mrs. 
Julia Doyce, Mrs. A. Remmington and Mrs. Dale. 

A meeting was called and Mr. Jas. Hurley 
was chosen president and John Y. Breckenridge, 
secretary. Thus organized the relief work of the 
committee was taken up in good earnest and much 
more effective work accomplished in the way of 
registration of sufferers and distribution of sup- 
plies than would have otherwise been possible. 
All the St. Paul members of the committee were 
loud in their praises of the most efficient manner 
in which the Pine City citizens had performed the 
task which had fallen upon them. Everything 
that could possibly be done to relieve the suffering 
had been seen to, and never did a nobler body of 
men and women undertake a noble work with a 
greater degree of self-sacrifice and devotion than 
was exhibited by the good people of Pine City at 
this time. Never were efforts for their benefit 
more fully appreciated, and never were a body of 
unfortunates more truly grateful than were these 



110 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 

fire-sufferers for their much needed succor. After 
what they had passed through and had been de- 
livered from, they were grateful indeed to feel that 
while they were homeless and alone in one sense 
they were still a part of that great body, that 
brotherhood which the world calls humanity, and 
from Ler lap of luxury the world at large was 
willing and glad to give her portion to aid the 
afflicted in their distress, and in the pathetic scenes 
that followed the tongue cannot express, and the 
pen cannot describe the heartfelt gratitude of the 
delivered towards their deliverers. 

Active preparations were immediately begun in 
both of the Twin Cities for a systematic relief o* 
the many in need. A meeting of St. Paul citizens 
appointed a committee of twenty-one representa- 
tive business men who were to have complete 
charge of all action taken by St. Paul for the relief. 
This committee met and appointed an executive 
committee to superintend the work. This execu- 
tive committee consisted of Messrs. E. W. Peet, 
chairman; C. W. Hackett, J. J. McCardy, George 
Benz, Thomas Cochran, W. J. Footner, and W. H. 
Lightner secretary of committee. Mr. Geo. R. 
Finch was later added to the list making eight 
members in all. 

This committee appointed three sub-committees 
to work under its supervision. These committees 
consisting of the following gentlemen. 



SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 1 \ i 

COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. 

Gen. Geo. Bend, chairman; A. A. Lindeke, E. j. 
Hodgson, H. C. McNair and Richard Gordon 

COMMITTEE ON SUPPLIES. 

W. L. Wilson, chairman; M. L. Hutchins, M. J. 
O'Connor, Edward Yannish and J. F. Jackson. 

COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION. 

Geo. R . Finch, chairman; Walter A. Scott and 
George Benz. 

These committees did some most efficient work 
in getting together and forwarding supplies and 
funds for the relief of the sufferers. The total 
amount of cash that was collected was $25,124.40. 
This was for the most part turned over to the 
State Commission, although, quite an amount 
was expended by the committee prior to the ap- 
pointment of the commission by the state; over 
$700.00 worth of supplies having been sent from 
St. Paul to the sufferers at Cumberland, Wiscon- 
sin. This was the first consignment of supplies 
received at that point from any source, and it 
came in a time of great need, and was appreciated 
by the unfortunates. Besides the cash, contribu- 
tions of all kinds of clothing and furniture were 
received, which it has been estimated would have 
been worth in the aggregate at least $10,000. 
The committee has about completed its labors, 



112 SYSTEMATIC RELIEF. 

and as soon as the report of its work is audited 
they will be placed with the State Historical 
Society where they will be held as a matter of 
record. 

Minneapolis was not one whit behind in the 
work of relief which St. Paul had taken up with so 
much vigor. A call was issued for a meeting to be 
held at the rooms of the Commercial Club in 
Minneapolis, which was very well attended by 
representative men of all classes. 

The meeting was called to order by Mayor 
Eustis. C. A. Pillsbury was elected chairman and 
Mr. Randolph secretary. Telegrams were read 
from the mayor's private secretary, Joseph T. 
Mannix, who was on the ground at Pine City and 
who stated that Pine City was the basis of opera- 
tions, and that the people had enough for imme- 
diate needs. After various speeches relative to the 
method that should be followed in the work, the 
following committee was appointed: C. A. Pills- 
bury, P. B. Winston, Mayor Eustis, C. M. Loring, 
Dr. Hoyt, Geo. Marchand; Mr. Clark, of the 
Adams Express Company; Mr. Sullivan, of the 
Jobbers' Union; Geo. R. Newell, W. J. Dean, Dr. 
Higbee, Senator McMillan, R. V. Squires, A. C. 
Haugan, Father Cleary, Rev. J. Falk Gjertsen, 
Father Christie, B. F. Nelson. This general com- 
mittee 'was afterwards sub-divided into several 
smaller committees under different heads in order 



SYSTEMATIC RELEIF. 113 

to facilitate the work in hand. J. M. Sullivan was 
appointed secretary of the committee and P. B. 
Winston treasurer. 

The sub-executive committee consisted of C. A. 
Pillsbury, Mayor Eustis, P. B. Winston and 
Harvey Brown. 

THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. 

Nelson Williams, J. T. Wyman, W.J. Dean, Geo. 
R. Newell, w T ith F. G. Winston as chairman. 

Another committee was appointed to go to Pine 
City on the special which was to take up the sup- 
plies from Minneapolis as follows: 

Messrs Highbee, Marchand, Loring, Winston 
and Hoyt. 

About $30,000 in cash was raised by this com- 
mittee besides a very large amount of clothing, 
provisions and other supplies which were sent 
from Pine City from time to time. The Minne- 
apolis hospitals received quite a number of those 
most seriously injured, and a number of promi- 
nent physicians went to Pine City to lend their aid 
to the afflicted at that point. It cannot be said of 
a single town in the state that they did not do 
their part In the great work they were called upon 
to accomplish. It was a time when all men were 
brothers, all rivalry ceased, and all communities, 
worked in harmony for the good of the whole. 



CHAPTER X 
THE RELIEF AT DULUTH, 




T. Paul and Minneapolis 
did their share in the work 
of relief, and at the same 
time and even previous to 
the action of the Twin 
Cities, the citizens of Du- 
luth and West Superior 
were as actively engaged 
in caring for the homeless 
survivors who had been 
brought to their doors and in making preparations 
to send other parties to the relief of those who had 
been less fortunate than their neighbors and were 
obliged to spend the night in the fire-swept district. 
The first intimation to the people of Duluth of 
the extent of the calamity which had taken place 
so near to their homes was at 5:55 Saturday after- 
noon, when Mr. C. M. Phillips, telegraph operator 
at the general freight ofiice of the St. P. & D. R. R- 
in Duluth, received the following message from A. 



114 



THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. n 5 

L. Thompson, telegraph operator at Miller Sta- 
tion. "The country is all burning up, No. 4, 
(Root's train) is burned up. Send Relief." Mr. 
Phillips appreciating the horror of the situation at 
once sent the following telegram to Mr. J. Roper, 
conductor of the freight train then at AValton 
River. "Take engine, caboose and box cars and 
go to relief of No. 4 passenger, as Miller reports 
they are burned up." Hurry for God's Sake, sign- 
ing the name of D. H. Williams, the St. Paid & 
Duluth yardmaster at Duluth. 

Immediately upon receipt of this urgent appeal, 
conductor Roper followed its instructions, and 
was on his way toward the wreck as soon as his 
train could be made up. He ran down to Miller 
and brought back a number of passengers and con- 
ductor Sullivan. All the passengers were so 
blinded by ashes and smoke that they could give 
no definite account of the accident or tell how it 
had come to pass. Conductor Sullivan could see 
nothing, and the pain in his eyes was so terrible 
that he became fairly crazed and in his agony it 
required the attention of four men to control him. 
The crew of Roper's relief train, though suffering 
severely, started back at once to make another at- 
tempt to reach the wreck of the limited. They 
proceeded to a point just south of the lower yards 
at Miller where a burned culvert prevented further 
passage. At this point they found a woman in the 



116 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 

water close by the track holding a little babe 
above her head. The two were saved and brought 
back. 

As soon as the news was received at Duluth a 
special train was made up to go at once to the 
scene of the disaster, and at 7:05 it left the depots 
having on board besides the train crew C. M- 
Vance, D. H. Williams, Drs Magie, Codding, 
McCormick and Gilbert and two Duluth news- 
paper men. The party were fully equipped with 
provisions, cots, blankets, medical supplies, surgi- 
cal instruments and everything that they thought 
could be of use in the relief of the sufferers. 
Shortly after ten o'clock this train reached Rut- 
ledge and at eleven o'clock met Roper's train on 
its second return from an unsuccessful attempt to 
reach the wreck. The Duluth party boarded 
Roper's train, and were run down to the culvert 
which had blocked his progress twice before, just 
below Miller, and from that point Williams and 
the doctors took a hand-car and went down 
through to Skunk Lake, where the passengers of 
the limited were found in their terribly exhausted 
condition. 

After a hasty examination as to the real condi- 
tion of affairs, Dave Williams sent his welcome 
telegram back to the anxious hearts who waited 
to hear the worst or the best as his verdict might 
show it to be. His telegram was as follows: 



THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 117 

"Have been to wreck with hand-car." Could 
only get to Miller with train. Wreck one and a 
half miles south of Sandstone Junction and is all 
burned up. " Passengers are all right but ex- 
hausted." The3^ are in a marsh. We go with tim- 
ber to build bridge. Tell everyone all are alive and 
as well as can be expected. Will arrive in Duluth 
at 9 a. M. 

Dave Williams. 

At about the same time or shortly after Dare 
Williams arrived upon the scene with his party, 
Dr. Barnum's detachment had worked their way 
through from Pine City with their train of hand- 
cars, and as the gray of the morning broke what 
might be termed the St. Paul contingent of the 
sufferers, about forty in number were loaded on to 
the hand cars and taken to Pine City, and from 
thence to St. Paul. The balance were transported 
to the relief train which had come down from 
Duluth and taken to that point to be cared for, 
where they arrived shortly after noon on SundaA'. 
Long before their arrival, the Union Depot was 
crowded with many hundred people all anxiously 
waiting for news. Men and women were there 
hoping for the best, yet fearing that the}- should 
receive bad news. When the train finalry arrived 
and it was given out that all were safe, happiness 
was depicted on every countenance ; friends soon 
found friends, and in an incredibly short space of 



118 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 

time all of the survivors had been temporarily pro- 
vided for at least. 

Early Saturday 7 evening Mayor Lewis, of Duluth, 
received a dispateh that 500 people from Hinckley 
would arrive at 9 o'clock over the Eastern Minne- 
sota road and would have to be cared for. This 
was the first confirmation of the rumor that 
Hinckley had burned, and this train was the 
Emergency Train, the escape of which from Hinck- 
ley has been described in a preceding chapter. The 
truth of the telegram was verified at 9:20 when 
the train arrived at Duluth with its forlorn cargo 
of suffering humanity. A squad of police was at 
the depot and kept the crowd back, and Mayor 
Lewis spoke to the refugees, saying a few words of 
re-assurance, and informing them of what 
measures had already been taken for their relief. 
They were then taken in charge by the Mayor and 
Chief of Police Armstrong, and piloted to the 
Ideal and Zenith restaurants and given a square 
meal. Lodging was then furnished for the night. 
Citizens vieing with one another in alleviating the 
distress of the homeless. Many homes of private 
citizens were opened and everything that was 
available was thrown open for the use of the 
sufferers. Twenty-five families were accommoda- 
ted in the Wolf Block. The Columbia Hotel, the 
Duluth Hotel, the Armory, the Howard Block and 
the Union Depot, all figured conspicuously in the 



THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 119 

shelter of the unfortunates both at this time and 
until they could be otherwise provided for. 

After having given temporary relief to the suffer- 
ers on the evening of their arrival the generous- 
hearted people of Duluth turned out Sunday morn- 
ing as one man, whose only thought and action 
was to care for those whom fate had placed in a 
position where they could not take care of them- 
selves. The folio wing proclamation was issued in 
the Duluth papers Sunday morning, and under the 
circumstances it would seem as if such a clear con- 
cise, yet earnest and heartfelt appeal could not fail 
±0 elicit the hearty support it received. 



PROCLAMATION! 



Mayor's Office. 
Duluth, Sept. 2, '94. 

A meeting of the business men 
and citizens of Duluth will be 
held at the council chamber in 
the city hall at 11 o'clock this 
morning for the purpose of ap- 
pointing a relief committee to 
provide ways and means for the 
care of the people who have been 



120 THE RELIEF AT DIJLUTH. 

left destitute and homeless by the 
disastrous fire, which has burned 
so many nourishing neighboring 
towns. Hundreds 01 men, wo- 
men and children were brought 
to the city last night and are in 
the armory and in lodging houses 
down town, who have lost their 
all and are scantily clothed. We 
must pro vide food and clothes for 
them at once. The occasion de- 
mands immediate action and I 
feel assured that there will be a 
hearty response to this call. 

Ray T. Lewis, 
Mayor. 

In response to the mayor's proclamation at 
eleven o'clock on that Sunday morning the City 
Hall at Duluth was filled to over-flowing with 
many of Duluth's most prominent and best citi- 
zens. The meeting was called to order by Mayor 
Lewis, and in a very short time an organization 
for systematic relief was effected, after which 
Mayor Lewis as chairman appointed the following 
committees who immediately entered upon the dis- 
charge of their several duties, and of whose efn- 



THE RELEIF AT DULUTH 121 

cient service too much commendation cannot be 
<^iven. 

Under the head of a general relief committee 
whose duty should be to superintend and oversee 
the whole work. Mr. Lewis appointed John T. 
Hale, chairman; E. C. Gridley, A. C. Batchelor, J. 
B. Geggie, C. D. Autremont, Bishop McGolrick 
and Ward Ames. Mrs. Miller, President of the 
Ladies' Relief Society, and E. M. Bangs, Superin- 
tendent of the Associated Charities oi Duluth. 
This general committee met and organized for 
more definite work and appointed the following- 
committees: 

COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION. 

W. Buchanan, E. C. Holliday and J. M. Smith. 

COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. 

A. B. Chapin, Wm. Craig and Otto Hartman. 

COMMITTEE ON LUMBER AND GENERAL SUPPLIES. 

Bishop McGolrick, chairman; Mr. J. G. 
Howard, Mr. H. B. Moore, Mr. W. T. Bailey, Mr. 
G. A. Leland, Mr. W. B. Weller, Mr. H. C. 
Shephard. 

COMMITTEE ON ROOMS, QUARTERS AND COMMISSARY. 

• Mr. J. B. Geggie, Mr. A. E. Batchelor, Mrs. E. 
M. Bangs. 



122 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 

COMMITTEE OX INFORMATION, IDENTIFICATION AND 
ADOPTION. 

Mr. C. F. Johnson, Mr. F. Davis, Mr. A. P. 
Cook, Mrs. E. M. Bangs. 

AUDITING COMMITTEE. 

C. R. Haines, chairman; J. C. Hunter and J. 
Megins. 

COMMITTEE ON INSURANCE LOANS. 

Mr. R. A. Tanssig and Mr. W E. Wright. 

COMMITTEE ON CLOTHING. 

Ladies' Relief Society. 

COMMITTEE ON WIDOWS AND ORPHANS. 

Hon. J. T. Hale, Hon. C. D. Autremontand Mrs. 
E. M. Bangs. 

At the suggestion of the State Commission Mr. 
John G. Howard, of Duluth, was sent to the 
burned district to take charge of the building up 
of those places. Mr. N. J. Miller was appointed 
to assist him. The following extract from the pen 
of Mrs. E. M. Bangs, who acted as secretary of 
the Duluth General Relief Committee will convey a 
more accurate idea of the condition of things in 
general in Duluth than I could possibly hope to do. 

"We estimate that we had fully fifteen hundred 
people to care for the first two weeks or more. 



THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 123 

Private houses, churches, the Bethel, the Armory, 
and Odd Fellows' Hall, were all thrown open for 
any use the committees might make of them. The 
Maternity Hospital and Duluth Home were also 
used, as well as quarters in the Berkelman Block. 
In all of these places the work was quickly and 
effectually done, the churches adjourning their 
services on Sunday morning to prepare their com- 
modious church parlors and Sunday School rooms 
into comfortable quarters for the crowds of fire 
sufferers, pouring utterly destitute into our city. 
It would be impossible to enumerate in detail, or 
mention individual excellence in work where so 
many did their uttermost. Suffice it to say that 
the "whole town rose as one person to offer and 
give the best they could afford, were it time, 
strength, money, clothing, food, or kind words 
and helpful deeds of sympathy. 

The total receipts of the Duluth Citizens Relief 
Committee for the forest fire sufferers in cash, 
lumber, provisions, clothing, etc., is up to date a 
little more than $20,000, and the committee have 
disbursed up this time in cash about fifteen thou- 
sand dollars, besides thousands of articles of wear- 
ing apparel to the needy men, women and children 
composing the unfortunate throng of refugees so 
suddenly thrown upon our bounty. 

Too much praise cannot be given for the able 
manner in which Mr. Gridley conducted the work 



124 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 

of the "Citizens Central Relief Committee " dur- 
ing all this trying time. Hon. J. T. Hale had been 
appointed chairman by the mayor, but owing to 
recent illness was obliged to decline. As soon as 
Mr. Gridley learned of his appointment, he imme- 
diately organized the committee work in the most 
systematic manner. A very large and spacious 
room in the Herald building was secured, and in 
less than half an hour the following committees 
were at work at tables on either side of the room, 
with printed cards on the walls telling what each 
committee was. The room looked like a well 
organized bank. There these faithful committees 
worked every day, and many times way into the 
night for six weeks or more during the most in- 
tense heat and trying conditions, most of them 
giving their time to the neglect of their own busi- 
ness interest. No one can imagine unless one went 
through it what a tax on ones nervous strength 
this was. Not once was Mr. Gridley unequal to 
any emergency which arose, and with the utmost 
courtesy and kindness treated all who came under 
his immediate care, answering and deciding in the 
same spirit all the difficult questions, and deciding 
with great promptness, and clear and fair-minded- 
ness all the varied problems which arose con 
stantly before him. 

The Local Relief Committee are up to this date, 
Nov. 16, 1894, still caring for about two hundred 



THE RELIEF AT DULUTH- 125 

fire sufferers, who will doubtless be more or less 
helpless through the winter. At a meeting of the 
Executive Committee Nov. 15, it was voted to 
give each family in our care a Thanksgiving 
Dinner of the old, time honored kind." 

Mr. W. B. Wellek 
Mrs. E. M. Bangs. 
Committee on • report of Duluth work for fire 
sufferers. 

* * 7f tt 

Another relief train was sent out Sunda}^ after- 
noon to Miller or Sandstone Junction, and search- 
ing parties organized to go to Sandstone on the 
Eastern Minnesota. Here were found the remains 
of thirty bodies all burned beyond human sem- 
blance. They had all fallen within 100 feet of 
their homes, and lay in attitudes horribly portray- 
ing the agonies of their last struggle. Some lay 
with their fleshless arms outstretched as if 
beseeching aid from a power that is higher than 
us , others were found clutching the earth beneath 
them . Children were found close to their mothers— 
oft-times the mothers own body partially sheltered 
that of the child, showing the filial aifection pre- 
dominant even to death. Two hundred and forty- 
seven of the survivors were conducted across the 
country three miles to Miller, from whence they 
were taken to Duluth. Their eyes were affected by 
the heat and smoke that for the most part it was 



126 THE RELIEF AT DULUTH. 

found necessary to lead them to the train as a per- 
son would lead a blind man. 

During Sunday night the first relief train went 
down over the Eastern Minnesota. Owing to 
burned bridges it was found to be impossible to 
get beyond Partridge, eight ' miles above Saad- 
stone; and from that point hand cars were taken, 
and each succeeding train brought in some survi- 
vors from Sandstone, or Hellgate, a sand-stone 
quarry near by. It were useless to attempt to 
enumerate all that was done and all the methods 
employed by the good people of Duluth for their 
afflicted neighbors. Train after train was sent out 
on its errand of mercy and returned laden with ad- 
ditional responsibilities for Duluth citizens to 
assume. Duluth was the first on the scene, the 
first to start a relief fund, and foremost in every 
way in doing all in her power for the fire sufferers. 

Others may have done all in their power for the 
sufferers, but it is certainly a fact that it lay in the 
power of the good people of Duluth to accomplish 
more for their alleviation than was possible for 
those at a greater distance from the scene of the 
disaster. The care of fifteen hundred destitute peo- 
ple having in most cases not even clothes on their 
backs, brought from a state of prosperity to one 
of abject poverty, almost in less time than ittakes 
to tell it, discouraged and sorrowing for ones 
loved and lost, is no small undertaking. Others at 



THE RELIEF AT DUEUTH. 127 

a distance might express their sympathy by the 
pratical prosaic method of a check that was drawn 
on a bank in the same way that hundreds of 
others had been, and once drawn would be sent 
and then forgotten, but it required sympathy of a 
different sort to sooth the sorrows of the child left 
utterly alone in the world, without money, with- 
out family and without friends. 

A few dollars in cold cash could not relieve the 
widow of the thought that upon her frail form 
rested the burden of providing and caring for her 
little brood, which had up to this time been shelt- 
ered as well by a father's love and a father's bless- 
ing. Coming in contact day after day with scenes 
like these, feeling obliged to assist when one's own 
physical had been taxed to its very utmost, and 
almost cried out in protest against such wanton 
disregard of the laws of nature, feeling the respon- 
sibility that rested upon them, the general com- 
mittee of Duluth have accomplished the work laid 
at their door in a manner that was wonderfully 
prompt, efficient and effective, and for their good 
work deserve and should receive the heartfelt 
thanks of a grateful nation. 




CHAPTER XI. 
OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 




j he excitement attendant 
upon the news of Hinck- 
ley's loss having slightly 
abated, the leaders ap- 
preciated the extent of 
the calamity and the 
magnitude of the work 
in hand, and the clear-headed saw it was absolute- 
ly necessay to systematize the work a great deal in 
order to insure the proper and equitable distribu- 
tion of the funds and materials. To this end re- 
gistration and death blanks were printed and the 
the work of procuring some definite information 
as to who were to be providedfor and what "was 
necessary for them, or in other words what they 
needed. In order to register, a refugee was called 
upon to give his name, his birth place and also the 
laame and birth-place of his wife and children, 
his residence, and how long he had lived in Minne- 



128 



OTHER RELIEF MEASURES 129 

sota. If a farmer the location of his land and the 
conditions upon which he held it. That is to say 
a great part of this section was railroad land 
which had at one time been held by one of the rail- 
road companies and was still held either by them 
or one of the large land companies, of which there 
were several. If a man desired to buy a piece of 
land he would pick it out and would be given what 
is known as a land contract upon it, that is a con- 
tract of sale of a certain piece of property for so 
much money, to be paid under certain conditions, 
usually so much a year, and agreeing to give a 
deed to the property when a certain amount of 
money had been paid, and take a mortgage for 
the balance. Thus giving the settler immediate 
possession of the property and enabling him to 
buy it in such a way that he would be able to pay 
for it. A great majority of the farmers in this sec- 
tion had their payments to meet on these contracts 
and one of the first duties that devolved upon the 
commission was to interview these Land Com- 
panies and secure such extension of the payments 
as would enable the settlers to get a start again 
before being obliged to give up what they had 
already invested for non-payment for their land. 
A great many mortgages were also extended in the 
same way. Another thing the commission sought 
to know was how much insurance, if anyf the 
register carried. The insurance companies, how- 






130 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 

ever, seemed to anticipate something of this na- 
ture; they were loth to take risks in this section, 
and for this reason the rates were high and the 
amount of insurance comparatively small. The 
idea of the settler seeming to be that he would 
carry just enough insurance to pay his debts and 
let it go at that. 

Next came the question what property he had 
left and its value. Then the address of friends and 
their ability to furnish aid or work for the refugees. 

After the foregoing came the all important ques- 
tion of what the applicant needed, whether he 
wanted to go back on his farm or to his home, and 
if not, where he wanted to go. In one particular 
at least all the sufferers are alike, they all needed 
clothes and food. As soon as they were registered 
they were given tickets to the store-keeper of the 
commission who would fit them out for clothes, it 
being the idea to give them a fair outfit not only 
of outer garments but under-clothing as well, at 
least two suits of underwear being furnished each 
person. They -were also given a ticket which 
would give them a supply of food. 

It was not in any instance the intention of the 
commission to place any one in a better position 
after the fire than he had been before, and the 
question was to determine how much each was 
capable of doing for himself and how much would 
be necessary in order to place them in a position 



OTHER RELIEF MEASURES, 131 

that would make them self-supporting during the 
coming winter. At the outset the commission was 
greatly handicapped in its workings in that, 
it was almost entirely lacking of facilities of trans- 
portation and of buildings in which to work. 
There was nothing left at Hinckle} r , not even a 
spear of hay for the cattle, and it is a fact that the 
animals who did succeed in escaping the fire 
nearly starved before provisions could be brought 
to them. 

The blank that was filled out for registration of 
the dead required similar information as to their 
past as was procured of the living. To this was 
added where they were found; by whom identified 
and how; where they were buried; valuables on the 
person; in whose custody the valuables were left 
and the name and address of any living friends. 
After the survivors had been registered and 
received their guarantee of food and clothing the 
commission took up each individual case, and in- 
vestigated their wants thoroughly. While no ex- 
act rule was laid down for the distribution of the 
funds, their approximate distribution amounted to 
about $25.00 per member of the family, but this 
varied more or less as the case might be, and a fair 
distribution might demand. Single men and 
women were allowed an outfit of clothes and 
$15.00 in money, and were given either work or 
transportation. A man and his wife and baby 



132 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 

would receive $60.00, and if it were three children 
would receive $100.00 besides food and clothing. 
Farmers were furnished a few plain tools and in 
cases where the land contract had been extended 
or the mortgage renewed a small, neat and com- 
pact house was given him, or if he wished to cut 
the charred trees and build himself a log house 
such as many of them had occupied, the means 
were furnished him whereby it might be done. 

Besides furnishing the house itself the commission 
supplied a few pieces of furniture such as were 
necessary for house-keeping, which although plain 
were comfortable and durable, and also crockery 
and bedding sufficient to supply their immediate 
wants. Mr. Hart, of the State Commission, tells 
me that in some cases where there were young 
children in the family the commission furnished 
them a cow, though this was not possible except 
in cases where it was thought to be especially 
needed. Ithad^been hoped that they would be 
able to give every farmer at least one cow, and 
perhaps a wagon, but that is now out of the ques- 
tion, as the funds of the commission have already 
been spent. 

The total amount of money received by the 
State Commission for the sufferers from all sources 
up to this time, Nov. 22, 1894, is $91,000. Of 
this amount the citizens of St. Paul contributed 
$32,000, Minneapolis, $30,000. The balance was 



OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 133 

received from various points atf over the state. 
The Governor's proclamation having called forth 
a very general action on the part of all the com- 
munities in the state, and meetings were held, local 
committees appointed, collection made and for- 
warded to Mr. Clark, treasurer of the commission. 
While the following is not a complete list of towns 
from which contributions were received it is a list 
of all the more important points. Duluth, Winona, 
West Superior, Mankato, St. Peter, Le Seuer, Red 
Wing, Lake City, Spring Valley, Fargo, Moorhead, 
Grand Forks, Glynden, Crookston, Litchfield, 
Fergus Falls, Redwood Falls, Montevido, New 
Ulm, Pipestone, Henderson, Heron Lake, Benson, 
Wadena, Elbow Lake, Chaska, Rochester, Preston, 
Sauk Rapids, Mora, Brainerd, Aitken, Benson, 
Morris, Glenwood, Sauk Centre, Alexandria, De- 
troit City, Park Rapids, Ortonville, Marshall, 
Howard Falls, Windom, Luverne, Albert Lea, 
Waseca, Cannon Falls, Northfield, Faribault, 
Center City, Brown's Valley, Graceville and Ren- 
ville. 

It will be seen by the above that the State of 
Minnesota responded nobly to the call for aid for her 
suffering citizens, and if this list were complete it 
would include every hamlet within the jurisdiction 
of the state. All responded with alacrity and gave 
that which they could spare best, were it money, 
clothes, or provisions, and the railroad companies 



134 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 

without any exception gave free transportation on 
their lines for all supplies destined to relieve the 
distress of the fire victims. Beside the cash relief 
fund mentioned an immense amount of clothing, 
household supplies and provisions were contributed 
to the sufferers. Methods of all sorts were enlisted 
in the work of raising funds, and numbers of enter- 
tainments were given, the proceeds of which were 
dedicated to the fire. 

Although the newspapers all over the country 
published a great many reports of the fire, and a 
sympathetic nation deplored the condition of the 
Hinckley fire sufferers, comparatively few contri- 
butions were received from points outside of the 
State of Minnesota. Chicago contributed about 
$1,000. A number of the eastern states perhaps 
as much more, but ninety per cent at least of the 
money received by the commission was donated by 
Minnesota citizens. There may have been indivi- 
dual contributions from outside parties to the 
sufferers themselves of which the commission has 
no means of knowing, but aside from that, Minne- 
sota contributed the lion's share. 

Quite an amount of money had also been ex- 
pended by the local committee of St. Paul, Minne- 
apolis and Duluth, prior to the assumption of the 
charge of affairs by the commission appointed by 
the Governor. The St. Paul & Duluth road gave 
at least $10,000 in freight and transportation, 



OTHER RELIEF MEASURES 135 

and the Great Northern must have contributed 
nearly as large an amount in the same way. 

At the time the commission took hold of the 
work they had been led to believe that about 
1,500 people would come under their charge, but 
registration showed a census of residents of 2,400 
people. They have built for these people 300 
houses, using over 2,000,000 feet of lumber in the 
construction of the same. They have furnished 
450 families with complete outfits of furniture, 
household goods and cooking utensils, as well as 
clothing, boots and shoes, and all the numerous 
small articles which are necessary for the comfort 
and convenience of the household. They have 
furnished them with provisions, and will continue 
to do so until such time as they are able to take 
care of themselves. They have now on hand dis- 
tributed among the various families provisions 
sufficient to supply them for a period of three 
months, and Mr. Hart estimates that at least 
$20,000 more will be required to supply all that 
will be needed before spring. 

The people of the burned districts as a rule were 
satisfied with the distribution of the funds as 
accomplished by the commission. Of course, there 
were some wfio felt very much dissatisfied with 
themselves, and everyone else because it was not 
in the power of the commission to give them 
enough to place them in a position, equal in all 



136 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 

respects to the one they occupied before the fire. 
They would have been dissatisfied in any event, 
and the commission has certainly done all in its 
power to insure a speedy and equitable distribu- 
tion of the supplies at their disposal, and should 
receive not the censure, but the gratitude and com- 
mendation of the entire state, as well as the 
afflicted Hinckleyites for the efficient manner in 
which they have served the commonwealth in this 
time of distress. They were all men of business, 
yet they devoted their time and energy to this 
work without a thought of renumeration, and 
would not have accepted it had it been offered 
them. The Rev. H. H. Hart, secretary of the State 
Board of Corrections and Charities, superintended 
the entire work of the commission, and for two 
months time put body and soul into the task. He 
seemed to be almost omni-present as his duties led 
him from one place to another, either to learn what 
was needed most and how much could be allowed, 
or how it could best be furnished. 

Mr. J. G. Howard, of Duluth, also rendered most 
efficient service in overseering and providing for 
the erection of all of the houses of the commission. 
He also worked without renumeration. In a con- 
versation with Rev. H. H. Hart, relative to the 
fire, he said: ' ' The vigor with which some of these 
people have taken up the work of their own relief 
is certainly very gratifying to those who have at- 




IN THE TEMPORARY HOSPITAL \T PINE CITY 



OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 137 

tempted to aid them, and alleviate their condi- 
tion. As a class they are hopeful and eai nest in the 
work of re-building their homes. One young man 
I know of, who lost everything, has done an 
amount of work that is little short of miraculous 
since the fire. Another poor fellow whose hands 
were so terribly burned that he has not, even yet, 
recovered the use of them was seen a day or two 
ago driving a team with both hands bandaged 
and bundled in lint and cloth. Some, however, 
seem to be discouraged, and these for the most 
part are those who for some reason were obliged 
to wait and idle away their time for the first 
few days after the fire. Thus giving them time 
to think and brood over their misfortune. 

This might have been averted had we been able 
to furnish them something to busy their hands 
with as soon as the fire had passed. The commis- 
sion established a depot at Hinckley and also one 
at Sandstone, and a warehouse was built at 
Hinckley for the purpose of holding the stores 
received for the sufferers. The Hinckley Depot has 
been abolished so far as the office is concerned, and 
the one at Sandstone will be in the course of a 
short time, although the commission will keep in 
touch with its proteges through its representative 
Mr. Geo. D. Holt, of Minneapolis, who will make 
bi-weekly visits to the sufferers and see to it that 
all are kept from want. The approach of winter is 






138 OTHER RELIEF MEASURES. 

looked upon with comparatively little apprehen- 
sion, as most of the families are able to take care 
of themselves with the assistance they have 
already received, and as logging has already been 
undertaken very extensively by the lumbermen, who 
will be obliged to cut all the standing pine in the 
district burned over this winter, in order to pre- 
serve it from the ravages of the worms, who will 
make their appearance next spring and summer, 
and there will be work enough to employ all the 
men who care to work in the woods. 

One lumberman alone is now employing 1,200 
men within eight miles of Hinckley, and expects to 
bank 150,000,000 feet of logs this year, when as a 
rule he cuts about 15,000,000 feet per annum. At 
Sandstone the quarry is employing 100 men at the 
present time, and the Great Northern Railway is 
making extensive improvements and making 
Sandstone a division point, employing over a 
hundred men no w, and expecting to employ a great 
many more shortly. At the present time there is 
no individual in the whole fire district that is 
suffering in any way that could be relieved by the 
commission, 



CHAPTER XII. 



ROOTS OWN STORY 



M 



R. JAMES ROOT, the heroic 
engineer of the Duluth limited 
which ran back and was burn- 
ed at Skunk Lake, gave the 
author the following as his 
story of the terrible ride for 
life on the first day of Sep- 
tember, 1894. Mr. Root is a 
modest appearing man, a lit- 
tle above the medium height, 
with an open, honest face, and a' general bearing 
that would convey to a careful observer the im- 
pression that he was not a mere carpet knight, but 
one of sterling worth who could and would under- 
stand and do without flinching any duty that 
might be placed upon him. He talked freely, yet 
not boastfully of his experience and told his story 
as follows ■ 

139 




140 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 

"When we left Duluth we were on time, and I 
think when we got to Carlton we were not more 
than ten minutes late, at all events, we were prac- 
tically on time when we got to the top of the hill 
at Hinckley . We had been running through smoke 
that was so thick and dense that they had lighted 
the lamps in the coaches, and I had the cab lamp 
lit, but as we reached the hill the smoke cleared 
and it was broad day light again and we blew the 
lights out. Then I saw the people coming from 
both sides of the track and across the bridge, and 
I said to the fireman, "There must be something 
wrong at Hinckley,' 7 and I applied the air and 
stopped, seeing so many people on the bridge I 
knew we couldn't go over it anyway. Just then 
an old woman and her two daughters came along 
and I asked them what the trouble was down 
there. They were so excited they couldn't tell me 
anything, but kept saying, "For God's sake will 
you save us," and that was all that I could get out 
of them. Then the people kept on coming and get- 
ting i»to the cars on both sides until Mr. Bartlett 
and his wife came along, and I asked them what 
the trouble was, he says: "Jim, "everybody is 
burned out and everything is burning at Hinck- 
ley." I asked him if the depot was on fire and he 
said that it was, and the tank-house and the 
bridge. I told them to hurry and get onto the 
train for I was going to run back to Skunk Lake 




ENGINEER JAMES ROOT. 



ROOT'S OWN STORY. 14,1 

I then saw the conductor and told him what I 
was going to do and for him to keep alook-ont for 
the passengers until we got there. I then climbed 
onto the engine again, and just as I did so every- 
thing seemed to let go; the wind raised; there 
seemed to be an explosion, and in an instant the 
whole train, even to the ties under the engine were 
ignited, all in less time than a man could snap his 
finger. I had hardly taken my seat when the glass 
in the cab window at my side, a heavy plate, I saw 
bend toward me and burst. It was carried to the 
top of the cab over my head, and as it came down 
struck me on the left side of the face and head cut- 
ting several quite severe gashes, although at 
the time I had no idea that I had been hurt at all. 
I knew I was bleeding a little, but didn't know 
anything of the cut in my neck from which I 
suffered so much from loss of blood. McGowan 
said afterwards that he noticed it, and I asked 
him why he didn't speak about it as had I known 
of it I would have put a handkerchief or a bit of 
waste in it and stopped the flow. He said he 
didn't think it was anything serious. As I got 
into the cut at the top of big Hinckley Hill I heard 
somebody calling, and it proved to be three men 
who were coming toward the train. I applied the 
air first thinking of taking them on, but a second 
thought told me it would not do to stop in that 
cut as the fire would surelv burn a hole in the hose 



142 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 

and set us there, so I released the air and we pulled 
out. Two of these men caught onto the pilot of 
the engine as we went by, one of them remained 
there a short time, and then fell off and was burned 
to death, the other one went through all right and 
is still alive. That is the last I recollect until we 
reached what we call Little Hinckley Hill. I was 
then lying on the deck of the engine with one foot 
on the quadron and one on the fire-box door. I 
was all alone in the cab. My engine had slackened 
her speed and was going very slow. I looked up 
at the gauge and saw that I had ninety pounds of 
steam I then pulled myself up and opened the throt- 
tle and sat on the seat again. Then the fireman 
showed himself out of the tank. He was down in 
the water wholly in the tank. I had commenced 
to get dizzy again, and was leaning forward, and 
he reached out his hand to catch me, and as he did 
so some water from his sleeve touched my face. 
It was so good, so reviving that I said at once, 
" For God's sake give me some more of that." He 
then threw a little more on me, and I told him to 
draw a pail of water from the tank. He did so, 
and we both thrust our hands into the water. I 
said to him, "I believe the back of my hands are 
cooked, I darsn't rub them," and he said "mine 
are just the same." My hands were paining me a 
great deal, and were swollen to twice their normal 
size when he drew the water, and when I thrust 



ROOT S OWN STORY. 143 

them into the water it seemed to relieve the pain 
entirely, and seemed to revive me very much. 1 
felt ninety per cent better immediately. I told 
Jack to put on some more coal and he threw on 
two more shovels full. About the time he had 
finished doing that I saw some water in the ditch 
at the side of the track and I knew we must have 
reached Skunk Lake, as there wasn't a drop of 
water within fifteen miles but that, sol applied the 
air and stopped her. I found I had stopped right 
upon the bridge, so I threw the reverse lever to a 
forward motion and pulled ahead a car length or 
two. I then fell prone on the deck of the engine. 
Jack wanted to help me, but I told him I was all 
right and for him to go and get the passengers out 
and into the water. He said I would burn to 
death there. I told him to never mind me but to go 
and get the passengers off and then he could come 
back after me. So he did so, and in a few minutes 
he came back and he and another man assisted me 
off of the engine. As soon as I struck the ground 
I rolled into the water and laid there for three 
hours, and all of the passengers of the train were 
laying or sitting in the water aronnd us, men, wo- 
men and children. While I was lying there in the 
water I seemed to lose the use and feeling of the 
lower part of my body. From my hips down to 
my feet I had no feeling whatever, so I pulled my- 
self up on the dry ground with my arms and laid 



144 ROOT'S OWN STORV. 

there for about an hour when the feeling all came 
back to me again, and I commenced to chill. I 
said to McGowan, "I must get back onto that 
engine where its warm for I'm chilling to death." 
He said I couldn't live on there for the coal was all 
burning, and the cab was all afire. I told him I 
was going there anyway, so he assisted me back 
onto the engine. I laid there on the deck a short 
time and the feeling all came back to me, and I felt 
pretty well only very weak. While I laid there in 
the water exhausted, I asked Jack to*run back and 
see if he could put out the fire and save any of the 
coaches, or if we could cut out any of them. He 
said it was out of the question, he could do noth- 
ing with them so he sat down in the water be- 
side me. When I had gotten back onto the engine 
again, I asked him if he could put out the fire on 
the tank, and told him if he couldn't to pull the 
pin between the tank and the engine and unhook 
the safety chains, and we would run her ahead 
out of the way of the fire. He pulled the pin and 
we ran her ahead about ten feet, away from the 
tank and let her stand there until she died. The 
entire train tank and everything burned right up, 
everything that was of burnable material. Since 
the matter has passed I have heard certain ones who 
should be in a position to know better express 
some words of censure toward the officers of the 
road for allowing us to run into such a death trap. 




FIREMAN JOHN MCGOWAX. 



ROOT'S OWN STORY. 145 

saying they should have notified us before, and I 
want to set that matter right. Under thecircunir 
stances no living man could have foretold what was 
in store for us, and all the way down from Carlton 
to Hinckley there was nothing to alarm us in any 
way other than the smoke which was thick and 
dense as I have already stated, but there was no 
blaze, there was absolutely no fire to be seen 
until that explosion occurred which burst in my 
cab window, and seemed to ignite everything 
inflamable all in an instant. The first intimation 
that I had that anything unusual had ocurred 
or was about to occur was when I saw the people 
running to meet me at Hinckley. We have had 
to run through smoke time and time again every 
year. There have always been more or less 
forest fires, and as I came out of the smoke at the 
top of the hill I thought we had passed it and 
everything would be clear sailing. I wish to 
say again injustice to the officials that there was 
nothing to warrant them in holding my train, nor 
is anyone to blame for the occurrence. It could n ot 
have been avoided, and I do not wish to see anyone 
censured for something which is not justice. The 
first relief party that reached us was that of Dave 
Williams, and his crew that came down from the 
north on hand-cars. I thought first that I would 
go back to Duluth with them, but on reaching the 
hand-car I found that I could not sit up, and know- 



146 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 

ing that I would take up so much room that it 
would keep back two or three others, I made my 
way back to the engine and told them I would 
wait. About an hour later the hand-cars came up 
from the south under conductor Buckley. They 
had four hand-cars and two push cars, and all the 
section men that they had picked up from Wyom- 
ing all the way down the road. They loaded the 
weaker ones, myself among them on the cars, and 
the balance walked to Hinckley. I rode on one of 
the push cars and Mrs. E. W. Sanders who was on 
the train supported my head and helped me 
through. I wish to say a word of Mrs. Sanders. 
She was never a very strong woman, yet through 
this whole ordeal she exhibited the greatest forti- 
tude, and I verily believe that when we were found 
by the relief train she was the clearest witted one 
in the whole party. While I lay on the engine a 
Mr. Anderson from Minneapolis came to me and 
did all that he could to relieve me in every way, 
wetting cloths and holding them over my eyes, 
and using every means in his power to ameliorate 
my condition. When we reached Hinckley on the 
hand-cars we found a train waiting to take us to 
Pine City, and then of course we came right on 
down. I, of course, stopped off at White Bear, at 
my home, and went to bed and to sleep as I was 
completely exhausted. I awoke Monday morning 
however, feeling as well as could be expected. My 



ROOT'S OWN STORY. 147 

eyes did not trouble me to amount to anything, 
and I was not burned badly anywhere. My 
hands which had been badly swollen did not prove 
to be really burned at all, and two days after the 
fire I was none the worse for wear. 



ff^UU/Sy-tr^~ 



Questioned about his past life and his career 
as a railroad man, Mr. Root said: "I was 
born in Greenbush, New York in 1843. I com- 
menced my railroading on the Hudson River 
road in 1857, under Mr. Tousey, who is now 
General Manager of the New York Central and 
Hudson River System. I railroaded there until 
1860, when I went to La Porte, Indiana, and 
went to work on the Michigan Southern & North- 
ern Indiana road. I railroaded there about a year 
and then enlisted as a minute-man to defend the 
State of Indiana at the time Morgan made his raid 
through Indiana and Ohio. I was mustered out 
again after Morgan got back into Kentucky. The 
regiment I belonged to volunteered to defend the 
State of Ohio, they not yet having organized a 
regiment, and drive Morgan back into Kentucky 
from Ohio. After that I went south and worked 
on the Louisville & Nashville road with head- 



148 ROOT'S OWN STORY 

quarters at Bowling Green. I remained on that 
road for about seventeen months as engineer and 
conductor of a work train. The guerillas got 
after me so I left and went into the employ of the 
government, and was sent to the front at Knox- 
ville, Tennessee. When Sherman made his great 
march to the sea, I started with him and we went 
to a point called Strawberry Plains, but returned 
and started out again towards Atlanta. I was 
the engineer on the advance train with him and 
went with him to a point about sixteen miles north 
of Atlanta where he met his first actual opposi- 
tion. I then went back to Chattanooga and got 
a hospital train and went back with that after the 
prisoners at Andersonville. We went through the 
prison and brought all the sick and wounded back 
to Chattanooga. I remained with the govern- 
ment until 1865, the close of the war. I then 
came to Hastings, Minnesota, to visit an uncle I 
had there, and remained there that winter, and the 
next spring went to Stillwater, Minnesota. At Still- 
water I went to work in a lumber mill for Mr. John 
Atley, and worked with him for about a year and 
a half. I then put in a winter in the woods, and 
that spring the St. Paul & Duluth road was build- 
ing and I made an application for a position as 
engineer, and in 1870 went to work for the St. 
Paul & Duluth road at Duluth as engine dispatcher. 
In 1871 I took an engine out on the road and 



ROOT'S OWN STORY, 149 

have served the St. Paul & Duluth Company in 
that capacity ever since. Of course I have met 
with a few minor accidents, but nothing of any 
great importance, and nothing that called out any 
censure on my part. I married Miss E. M. Fox 
while I was at work in Stillwater in 1869. 



JIM ROOT'S RIDE. 



Franklyn W. Lee. 

When the angel blows his trumpet and the firmanent unrolls. 
And the voice of God is calling all the many scattered souls, 
There's a man who'll lead a phalanx up the jewelled golden 

street 
To a corner they have saved for him beside the mercy seat; 
For the angels hate a coward and they love a gritty man 
And they know Jim Root's a hero on the strictly gritty plan. 

It was early in September, and the earth was just as dry- 
As a lump of punk and hotter than an upper Congo sky. 
There had been no rain since April and it needed but a match, 
To engulf the northern district, set it burning like a thatch; 
And the people did not wonder when the smoke began to rise 
Till a pall hung low and darkly, shutting out the summer 
skies. 

Jim was running on the Limited, and when he left Duluth 
There were stories of the dangers which seemed only partial 

truth, 
But the hand that held the throttle was a hardy one and true 



150 ROOT'S OWN STORY. 

And though hell was on his orders, Jim was bound to take her 

through. 
He controlled the lives of many and he knew that all his nerve 
Would be needed when he headed for the hades round the curve. 

They had made the run to Miller ere the breeze began to scorch 
Ere the people saw the waving of that mighty, flaming torch 
"But I'll run her through to Hinckley," thought the little 

engineer, 
" Where I'll wire in for orders — it is not too far from here ;" 
And he yelled to Jack McGowan, who was on the other side, 
*' Crowd the coal and keep her going, for I mean to let her 

slide!" 

All the horrors told by Dante, all the pictures by Dore 

Are imperfectly suggestive of that blazing right of way 

For the universe seemed flaming and the air would fairly 

seethe 

Till the people in the coaches found it difficult to breathe, 

While the entrance into Hinckley seemed the inner gate of 

hell, 
With the devil's imps disporting on- the pine trees as they fell. 

To have passed beyond the station would have meant the 

death of all ; 
To have fooled around for orders from some fellow in St. Paul 
Would bave been the height of folly, and when people who had 

ran 
For the train were safely sheltered from the fiend the flight 

began , 
And, reversing, Jim moved backward through the awful, blazin 

rain 
To a place where he could harbor all the people on the train. 

There were flames above, around them, underneath — no hand 
could paint 



ROOT'S OWN STORY. 151 

All the terrors of that moment, which made strongmen droop 
and faint. 

Every car was like an oven ; coaches blistered in the heat ; 

Panes of glass began to shrivel, and, to make the hour com- 
plete, 

Tongnes of flames crept through the windows as the train be- 
gan to burn 

And a strange and deathlike whiteness crept o'er faces drawn 
and stern. 

But Jim Root was on the engine and had naught to bar the 

flame, 
Though his hand was on the throttle and he stuck there just 

the same. 
As he backed her through the horror, withSkuuk lake six miles 

away, 
He had little hope of living to recall that fearful day ; 
But the engineer was plucky, and with Jack McGowan there 
He was good for any duty, for he had a life to spare. 

When his hand began to blister, why, the other one was strong, 
And when both were singed and broiling they did duty right 

along; 
When his overalls were smoking, there was hardy, faithful 

Jack, 
Who was standing with a bucket pouring water down his 

back. 
Once or twice Jim almost fainted, once or twice fell off his 

seat, 
But he rallied like a hero as he fought away the heat. 

And he saved a train of people, just for common duty's sake- 
Held the throttle, cool and gritty, till they reached the little 

lake, 
Till the hundreds went in safety from the charred ill-fated 
train, 



152 



ROOT'S OWN STORY. 



And he never gave a whimper in his agony of pain, 
Never murmured — no, not even when his fearful ride was o'er 
And he sank, all burned and nerveless, on the blackened, burn- 
ing floor. 
They will tell you of the heroes who left no good deed undone; 
They will say that all the honor should not go to merely one; 
But whatever men accomplished for the grateful ones to tell, 
When in future years they speak of all the horrors of that hell, 

It was Jim, who, sticking bravely in the glaring face of death. 
Saved three hundred human beings from the all destroying 
breath. 

When the day of judgment cometh and the firmament unrolls, 
And the voice of God is calling all the many scattered souls, 
There's a man who'll lead a phalanx up the jewelled, golden 

street, 
To a corner they have saved for him beside the mercy seat ; 
For the angels hate a coward, and they love a gritty man, 
And they know that Jim's a hero on the strictly gritty plan. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN 
AND OTHERS. 




he Hon. C. D. O'Brien, who was 
one of the passengers on the 
Duluth limited gives the follow- 
ing graphic account of the af- 
fair as he saw it. He was ac- 
companied by his son Richard, 
and by his brother, Dr. Harry 
J. O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien says: 
"We left Duluth on the St. Paul 
limited train for St. Paul at 1:55 on the after- 
noon of September 1st. It had been smoky 
throughout the northern forests and over Lake 
Superior for a long period, and as we left Duluth 
the wind increased strongly from the southwest 
and smoke rolled down in such quantities that the 



153 



154 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN 

city of Superior across the bay was no longer visi- 
ble. We expected that on reaching the top of the 
hill near Thompson station to get out of the 
smoke, bnt on arriving at that point the smoke 
was still in great clouds on both sides of the road, 
partially obscuring the sun. There were some fires 
burning between the St. Louis river and the line of 
road between Thompson and Duluth, but they were 
not near enough to the track or of sufficient size to 
create any apprehension . After leaving Thompson 
the next stop was Hinckley, the point which we 
never reached, but at Barnum, a station outside of 
Thompson, the smoke had so increased as to ren- 
der objects almost indistinguishable; farther 
down, at the lower stations, electric lights were 
lighted in the mills and the gloom continued to in- 
crease. Fourteen minutes before we reached the 
place where the train finally stopped it became 
absolutely dark, the lamps were lighted in the ear 
but it was impossible to discern anything outside ; 
and this condition lasted for just fourteen minutes, 
when we ran out of it into a dim smoky atmo- 
sphere through which the tops of the trees and im- 
mediate objects could be discerned. During all this 
time there was no sign of actual fire, nor could we 
even discern the reflection of fire upon the smoke 
on either side of the track. About a mile from 
Hinckley the train suddenly stopped, and at the 
same time the smoke lifted and the location of 



EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 166 

Hinckley was visible ; from it light smoke was curl- 
ing tip, but the sky was visible in patches. We 
then supposed that we had gotten out of the smoke. 
Just as we stopped a number of people came run- 
ning through the underbush and woods on the left 
side of the track towards the train, crying and 
making indescribable noises ; there were men, wo- 
men and children, and the number seemed between 
twenty and thirty. As they got to the wire fence, 
fencing the right-of-way they tore themselves 
through the fence, the men tearing the women 
through, throwing the children across, and seem- 
ingly entirely demented and crazed by fear. Not 
having seen any fire, this condition of things was 
unintelligible to most of the passengers. For my- 
self, I stepped out upon the platform and down to 
the ground on the left side of the train, and while 
the sky was reasonably clear in front it was suffo- 
catingly hot and the ground appeared to be very 
much heated. Just as I stepped back upon the 
platform I heard a roar as of a cyclone or tornado, 
and the trees upon the west side of the track were 
bent and twisted as though by the beginning of a 
cyclone which apparently came from the south- 
west. I stepped across to the other side of the 
train and looked towards the southwest, when a 
sudden blast of hot air struck the car, requiring 
the closing of the door. After it passed I stepped 
out again and just as I did so ascertained that the 



156 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 

roar was caused, not by a cyclone of wind (although 
the wind was blowing very heavily), but by a 
burning cyclone, or mountain of bright flame 
which was rolling up from the Grindstone river 
directly upon the train. I stepped back and closed 
the door of the coach, and about that time the 
train commenced to move backward. It had only 
gone a short distance when a rush of. flame struck 
it, breaking out the glass in the doors of the car 
and in the smoking-room, setting the latter on fire. 
I then stepped back in the coach through the smok- 
ing-room and found the aisles crowded with the 
passengers, numbers of whom were women and 
children. The train was gathering headway to 
the rear all this time, but in what seemed a very 
short time there was a rush of flame all over the 
train, when every window- on both sides of the car 
burst out and the flame seemed to envelope the 
train top, bottom and side, setting the coach on 
fire on both sides, on top and on the roof. The 
passengers pulled down the rubber blinds in the 
chair car, but these only lasted a moment when 
another wave ' of flame swept through burning 
those up, and the flames swept through the car each 
side and through the windows. During this time 
the male passengers were passing wet handkerchiefs 
which were wet in the cooler, and the linen covers 
of the seats in the chair car which had been torn 
off were saturated with water and passed to the 



EXPERIENCES OF HON. C, D. O'BRIEN. 157 

women and children to protect them. At one time 
the train gave a lurch and we supposed it was off 
the track, but it was evidently the force of the 
wind that had lifted the car and we continued to 
rush backwards. For a moment we passed out of 
the flame,andthesmokepouringinatthe windows 
from the outside was sensibly cooler than the flame 
or air had been, and we supposed we had escaped, 
but in a moment later discovered that the train 
was so thoroughly on fire that it was impossible to 
put it out. In a short time, the duration of which 
I cannot give, the train stopped and the passengers 
in our coach (which was then on fire entirely for 
the first third and on fire underneath at the rear 
and all through the roof) got out upon the right 
of way on the west or right hand side of the train 
as it faced towards St. Paul. Here some one cried 
to go back into the train and not to leave it, and 
some of the female passengers attempted to do so 
but they were pulled back, as the train was then 
uninhabitable and was simply a roaring mass of 
flames. The group of people, consisting of eight 
or ten, in which I was, laid down on the right of 
way, keeping their faces close to the earth and 
crawled toward the fence which was distant fifty 
feet from the track. 

It was suffocatingly hot, we were blinded by 
smoke and the rush of the hot air, and were 
covered by the cinders that were flying in all direc- 



158 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 

tions. We, however, succeeded in crawling through 
the right of way fence and getting to a patch of 
sand which was some twenty or thirty feet west 
of the fence. There again the sirocco-like hot air 
almost overwhelmed us, but we lay prone upon 
the ground, and by keeping our faces almost buried 
in the sand succeeded in escaping suffocation. One 
of the young men in the group said that there was 
water to the south of us, that he had seen the 
glint of it as the train stopped, and the colored 
porter, John Blair, who was heroically endeavor- 
ing to save the passengers of his coach, stood to 
the south of us and his back to the smoke and 
flame, sprinkling the prostrate women and children 
from a fire extinguisher. Some of the party 
crawled up on their hands and knees to the south, 
a distance of about two car-lengths, and then 
found by feeling that there was water, and upon 
returning the entire party scrambled, crawled and 
were pulled and pushed up to a little pond which 
afterwards turned out to be about sixty feet wide, 
and the women and children were rolled in it. 
Those who could not lie down crouched as low as 
they could get, and we remained there for a period 
that I cannot give but until the deadly heat and 
the flying cinders had somewhat lessened and the 
wind, still blowing with great violence and fully 
charged with smoke, was somewhat cooler. It 
was impossible to see objects at a distance of but 



EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 159 

a few feet on account of the smoke, and in addi- 
tion all in our party were more or less blinded so 
as to make vision even more difficult, and it was 
only at intervals and with our backs to the wind 
that we could open our eyes at all; but having ascer- 
tained that the weight of the fire had passed over us, 
as we were undoubtedly in a clearing of a few 
acres in which there was no material to burn, we 
removed from the deeper water to a place where 
the water was only about six inches deep, and 
after lying there some time longer we again moved 
to where the ground was partially dry and finally 
moved out upon ground which was absolutely dry. 
By the light of the burning train, and particularly 
the tender, upon which the coal was all on fire and 
brightly blazing, I was enabled to get a glance at 
my watch and saw that it was just six o'clock ; 
we had, therefore, been in the water or mud from 
about 4 or 4:10 p. m. until 6. We lay in groups 
upon the ground assisting each other to the best 
of our ability during the night and until 3 o'clock 
in the morning, when a party of rescuers from 
Duluth who had left their train three miles north 
of us came down with a physician and some 
lanterns. At four o'clock a relief party from 
Hinckley got through, and a little later hand-cars 
arrived bringing some milk, bread, water, and 
stimulants, which were sadly needed by the suffer 
ers. At 5 o'clock the hand-cars were connected 



160 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 

together with planks and the women and children 
and the most injured people placed upon them, and 
we started back for Hinckley, a distance of six 
miles, being over the road through which our train 
had backed. It is impossible to describe the ap- 
pearance of the country. Before the fire it had 
been covered with a heavy growth of small trees, 
principally poplars, birch and tamarack ; here and 
there among them were a few larger trees, and 
some of the older stumps were standing, but from 
Skunk Lake, where we had stopped, to the bridge 
at Hinckley and as far as could be seen on each 
side of the track the ground was swept as with a 
broom of fire ; no vestige remained of the railroad 
fences, very little of the telegraph poles, a small 
portion of these latter being standing in some in- 
stances ; and the herbage and foliage were abso- 
lutely swept from the ground. So great had been 
the heat that the ties were charred and burned, the 
rails in many places twisted so out of shape that 
the hand-cars had to be lifted around them, and 
the sides of the cuts presented a baked and calcined 
appearance ; the bodies of deer and rabbits lay 
along the track, and when some two miles and a 
half from Hinckley we came across the first human 
bodies the full horror of the situation was appar- 
ent to us. Between the point where we stopped 
and the bridge at Hinckley on the road side in- 
side the right of way and along the road were 



EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 161 

some twenty-two bodies, some in groups of three 
or four, others singly, all burned to a crisp and 
some of them partially consumed. It would be 
useless to attempt to describe these horrors; no 
words could give or paint the situation, and the 
effect upon the nerves of the survivors of our train 
when we came upon these scenes was a severe one, 
for there we beheld demonstrated what our fate 
would have been had it not been the heroic courage 
of our engineer and his fireman. Some slight idea 
of the volume of heat through which our train 
was run can be given when it is told that the coal 
on the tender was set on fire on the top and burned 
down through, and when it is further related that 
within a short time after our train stopped the en- 
tire train with the exception of the engine was 
reduced to smouldering coals ; no vestige of any of 
the cars remaining except the iron-work, and the 
tender being filled with flaming coal which had not 
been consumed when we left there. 

To James Root, the engineer, and his fireman Mc- 
Gowan, are due the credit ofhaving saved the lives 
of the passengers on that train as well as the refu- 
gees from Hinckley who were taken aboard, on the 
occasion of our first stop. How they were enabled 
to do it is unintelligible to those who found exist- 
ence almost insupportable inside of the cars, while 
those two men were in the very front of the flame 
which was pouring down upon them and only pro- 



162 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 

tected from it by the slighter structure of the cab. 
The engineer was severely cut about the head by 
the flying glass, and it is said fainted twice or three 
times while running backwards and was replaced 
upon his seat by the fireman. The morning further 
demonstrated his judgment in stopping the train 
where he finally did, for there was no other point 
within reach where there was sufficient clearing to 
save the lives, of the passengers, and the train itself 
was entirely consumed within a short period of the 
time that it stopped. It could not have run back- 
wards for three minutes longer without having 
burned every person in it, for at the time of the 
stoppage all of the cars were on fire both on the 
outside and inside. The porter of the chair-car, 
John Blair, who stood in the rear of his group of 
passengers and played upon them with the fire- 
extinguisher, cannot be too highly praised. The 
conduct of the women and children in our car is 
equally beyond praise. They were cool, collected, 
and obeyed orders absolutely. I do not know of 
any one, man, -woman or child, in our car who 
flinched from his duty, and while I presume nobody 
expected that we wouid get out of the car alive or 
that in case of getting out we would survive, each 
acted with a self-possession that was simply won- 
derful. 

No estimate of time can be given as to the dur- 
ation of the actual horrors of the situation while 



EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 163 

instant death was staring us in the face, but we 
stopped to take up the fugitives at either four or 
five minutes past four o'clock, we must have run 
back the fi.Ye miles at a high rate of speed, and 
probably arrived at Skunk Lake at 4:10 or 4:15. 
From that time until a quarter before six to six 
o'clock none knew whether we would survive or 
not. The conductor of the train, Sullivan, did his 
duty until the last. A short time before the train 
stopped he passed through it from rear to front 
reassuring the passengers and doing his duty to 
the fullest and most complete extent. It is said 
that afterwards he became insane; no one realizing 
the horror of the situation and the fearful respon- 
sibility attaching to his position could wonder at 
it; the only wonder is that the survivors of this 
train have continued to retain their reason. 

Of course there were incidents of different kinds 
connected with that two hours of horror that 
stand out sharply in the mind and reflection of 
each of the survivors. I presume that none of 
them are alike or that none saw the same occur- 
rence, but speaking for myself I can only say that 
while I remember them, I find it impossible to sit 
down and relate them, for as the mind reaches 
back over the occurrence the horrors are again 
renewed and seem more impossible of contempla- 
tion, than they were while they actually occurred, 
and every nerve was strained to preserve judgment 



1$4 EXPERIENCES OF HON. C. D. O'BRIEN. 

and reason while they existed, nor can I now un- 
derstand how it was possible that we were saved. 



OTHER EXPERIENCES. 

Mrs. E. W. Sanders, of St. Paul, wds.<i passenger 
on the south bound limited that was^ "burned at 
Skunk Lake, and passed the horrible ordeal, with 
much fortitude . She was accompanied on the train 
by seven children, consisting of her own family and 
some cousins of theirs and they all succeeded in 
escaping death from the flames. When the train 
reached Skunk Lake, Mr. C. D. O'Brien assisted 
Mrs. Saunders in getting her little flock together in 
safety in the water, and once there did not abate 
his efforts in their behaif, wetting cloths and throw- 
ing water over them until the fire in its intensity 
had passed. Mrs. Saunders appreciated Mr. 
O'Brien's efficient services to herself and her chil- 
dren at their time of need, and is loud in expression 
of gratitude and commendation. They lay in the 
water for nearly six hours, when feeling the fire 
had passed they made their way to the dry ground 
and remained their until relief came in the morn- 
ing when they were taken to Hinckley on the hand- 
cars, and from thence to her home in St. Paul. 

It was an awful experience for anyone to endure, 




DR. E. L. STEPHAN. 



OTHER EXPERIENCES. 165 

and for a lady of Mrs. Sanders temperament it 
was especially so, yet through it all she never once 
lost her presence or mind or self-control, and 
proved herself, as a woman can, equal to an emer- 
gency which makes the hearts of stronger brothers 
quail with fear. Aside from the fact that she 
eaught a severe cold and suffered more or less from 
the nervous shock, Mrs. Saunders and her proteges 
are none the worse for their experiences, yet they 
all feel that their lives hung by the merest thread 
and are grateful to an omnipotent power for their 
deliverance. 

Mr. John Craig, chief of the Hinckley Fire De- 
partment, whose heoric conduct infighting the fire 
has often been spoken of and whose , good judg- 
ment warned the people that the town must burn 
in time and to save themselves, tells his story as fol- 
lows : "About 2 o'clock we called out the fire de- 
partment and went to the west side of the town. 
We had 2,000 feet of hose. At that time we never 
dreamed that the town would burn. From the 
point where we were working we saw the fire start 
in the other side of town. They came after us to 
leave where we were and go and help those on the 
east side, so we started over. I telegraphed Rush 
City for more hose. When I came back up town I 
found everybody gone. I got my wife on the East- 
ern Minnesota train, but they got away before I 
could get my mother and sistertoit, and we finally 
got into the gravel pit." 



166 OTHER EXPERIENCES. 

Dr. E. L. Stephen, of Hinckley, who was con- 
spicuous both at the time of the fire and in the try- 
ing days that followed, says : " I was in my office 
until it got so hot it wouldn't hold me. I then 
went out and went through all the houses in the 
south part of the town to see that no one was left 
behind. The men were all out fighting fire and it 
was the women and children that were left. I 
carried a number of children to the train. I don't 
know how many. I should think though at least 
twenty. I went into my office the last thing to get 
some articles I wanted, and when I opened the 
door the fire was right upon me, and I closed the 
door again and waited until the first gust had 
passed, I then ran and got on to the Eastern 
Minnesota train. I went to Duluth, but came 
back on the first relief train and walked about fif- 
teen miles through Sandstone to Hinckley. I 
counted forty-seven bodies at Sandstone. 

The majority of the corpses showed no sign of a 
struggle. They seemed to die almost instantly, not 
from smoke or from fire, but from one breath of 
the heated atmosphere. I saw one man in parti- 
cular who fell while runniug, and his legs were in 
just the position of taking the next step with his 
arms stretched out in front of him. I shall never 
forget the scenes of that fiery holocaust. It was 
terrible. I saw people leave their houses and fall, 
and perish within twenty feet of their door-step, 



OTHER EXPERIENCES. 167 

and the heat was so intense that I was obliged in 
my trip through the houses to hold my breath 
from one house until I got inside and could breath 
the cooler air of the next one. „ 

Rev. E. J. Lawler, more familarly known as 
Father Lawler, had perhaps as close a call as was 
experienced in the fire. When the fire broke out 
Father Lawler accompanied by his housekeeper 
and a Mr. Flynn and his wife ran to the river. The 
women had a seal plush cloak which effectually 
shielded them from the flames, and as often as 
Father Lawler heard a groan from those around 
him he would go to them and assist and throw 
water over them. His housekeeper became over- 
come by the heat and sank, but he caught and 
raised her and she soon revived. After a time he 
was himself overcome and fainted, but the thought- 
fulness of a little lad who happened to be near by, 
and who held the reverend gentleman's head out of 
the water until he was able to protect himself 
again,savedhim. Those who died in the river, per- 
ished not from the fire, but were drowned. Father 
Lawler' s eyes were terribly affected by the smoke 
and burning cinders, and it was necessary to lead him 
the next morning as he could see nothing. Mrs. 
Flynn was taken to Pine City and cared for by the 
Judge of Probate. 

Dr. Cowan, whose picture is given here in con- 
nection with that of Father Lawler was the 



16* OTHER EXPERIENCES. 

coroner of Pine County, sund of course much of the 
work of caring for the bodies of the dead fell to 
his charge. A work which he took up and carried 
on without fear or favor, and in which he exhi- 
bited a degree of executive ability, "which assisted 
greatly in straightening out the tangle which they 
found things in after the fire had passed. 

To the efforts of Mr. John Y. Breckenridge, the 
Pine City druggist, perhaps as much credit is due 
for the assistance rendered an afflicted people as to 
those of any other one man. At the time of the 
arrival of the news that Hinckley had burned his 
was the only drug store available to furnish sup- 
plies to the wounded and he immediately set to 
work to arrange such articles as might be needed 
from his stock for the relief of the sufferers, and 
with his equipment of lint, linseed oil, etc., went 
to Hinckley with the first relief train. He came 
back to Pine City with the first train that brought 
out the sufferers, and from that time forward for 
three days worked incessantly without rest or sleep 
to alleviate the afflicted. He was elected secretary 
of the Pine City Relief Committee, and acted in 
that capacity as long as there was anything that 
the committee could do. Throughout the entire 
period that Pine City found herself responsible in so 
great degree for the safety and comfort of the 
refugees, John Y. Breckenridge was in the front 
rank. He proved himself a man in every sense of 




JOHN Y. BRECKENRIDGK 



OTHER EXPERIENCES. 169 

the word, and a gentleman worthy of highest 
tributes of commendation at the hands of a bene- 
ficent public. 

Mr. Frank G. Webber, of Pine City, had the 
most revolting and gruesome task that could be 
assigned to anyone, that of superintending the in- 
terment of the bodies. He says: "I was on the 
first relief train that went up from Pine City and 
took four men and 5,000 feet of lumber to bury the 
dead. We started in Monday morning with 
twenty-one men : we found ninety -six bodies at the 
cemetary ready for interment; they were all burned 
beyond recognition. We dug a trench sixty feet 
long, six feet wide and four feet deep, and in this 
trench these ninety-six unidentified bodies were 
buried . Sixty-five of these bodies were buried with- 
out even a box for a coffin, and the balance were 
furnished that dignity. I went back Tuesday 
morning with the same men and finished the work 
Wednesday, burying in all 233 bodies. In handling 
the bodies we made a stretcher with two poles, 
and the bodies were rolled onto the stretcher and 
from that into the trench, which was dug on an in- 
cline. During the time that burials were being 
made, the men who did the work were obliged to 
keep up their nerve and strength in viewing these 
horrible scenes by the use of stimulants, but Mr. 
Webber during the whole three days took nothing 
in the shape of stimulants or nourishment but a 



170 



OTHER EXPERIENCES. 



little milk. The total number of deaths caused by 
the fire will probably never be known, and it is cer- 
tain that numbers of them will never be identified. 
Parties of lumbermen and hunting parties are still 
finding the remains of some unfortunate fellow 
who had been overtaken and perished, leaving not 
even a trace of his identify, and scarcely a trace of 
his existence. So far as is now known the total 
number of lives lost by the fire in all quarters is 
476. Of this number sixty-three died at Sand- 
stone; twenty-two at Pokegama: eleven in the 
State of Wisconsin ; twenty-two Indians and the 
balance in Hinckley and its immediate vicinity. 





CHAPTER XIV. 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 



He author has made no 
attempt at elegance of 
diction in editing and 
publishing the following 
anecdotes and experien- 
/W'fl^K^^^S© 1 ^ " ces °^ ^ e surv i vors °f 

»lJf^v ^ e ^ re ' ^ ut ^ as a * me d 

*w " to convey the impres- 

sions wrought upon the different minds as they 
were related by some of the sufferers, when ques- 
tioned as to the actual facts of the calamity as 
they appeared to them. Mayor Webster of Hinck- 
ley says: u I gave up all hope of saving the town. 
I went through the house and spoke to my wife 
and told her the fire was beyond control, and that 
she must get ready to go to the gravel pit with me. 
I went to the barn and got the horses out, after a 
good deal of trouble on account of the smoke. 
When I got back to the house I found that my 

171 



172 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 

wife had gone, thinking perhaps I was already on 
my way to the pit. I then went over to the pit 
but jny wife was not there. The eastern Minne- 
sota train was standing on the track, and I went 
through several cars, but did not find my wife 
among the refugees. As there were several cars it 
was impossible for me to get through I thought 
she must be in one of them. I felt quite easy 
about her. I accordingly looked to see what I 
might do for others. Going up town I found a 
team hitched to a wagon without a driver. I got 
two women and seven children and drove them 
over to the gravel pit where I staid myself until 
the awful ordeal was past. After it was over I 
again took up the search for my wife, although at 
first I labored under the impression that she had 
gone to Duluth on the Eastern Minnesota train, 
but I have not been able to find a single trace of 
her or anything that could serve to identify her, 
She must have become biwildered and perished in 
the heat. ,, When Mr. Webster became convinced 
that his wife had been one of the unfortunates who 
had died in their own door-yard, the realization of 
the truth nearly destroyed his leason, and for a 
number of days he seemed like one dazed, not of 
this world, yet in it. 

Another story that was characteristic though 
perhaps not as pathetic as the last was that of 
Joseph Tew, a drayman of the town of Hinckley. 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 173 

He said: "I am a fireman, and fought lire until 
half past three when it was apparent that every- 
thing was going I went home and got my wife 
and six children on the Eastern Minnesota train. 
The train pulled out leaving myself, my mother 
and my oldest girl behind . I then drove with them 
to the wagon bridge, and turning the team lose we 
descended to the river. We had no sooner reached 
the water when a perfect shower of cinders and 
fire fell over us, and I found a couple of old coats 
and put over the women. After staying in the 
water about two hours and a half we left the 
river and went down to the pit and then to the 
Eastern Minnesota round-house. Those who went 
north across the wagon bridge were all lost. Why, 
man, I could show you the place where the next 
morning men, women and children were piled up one 
above the other just as thick as those rocks there, 
pointing to a pile of building stone near by. "I 
only had an apron that mother gave me over my 
head." 

Walter Scott in charge of Brennan Lumber Co's- 
store says : "I got away on the Eastern Minne- 
sota. Wind blew sixty miles an hour. Up until 
3 o'clock no one thought there would be any 
danger for the town. Conductor Powers of the 
Emergency Train was the coolest man I ever saw 
in my life. The way he kept his nerve was some- 
thing wonderful. One of the heroes that perished 



174 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 

unnoticed and almost unknown was Paul Liske 
the tailor at Hinckley. He saved the lives of two 
young ladies by picking them up and carrying 
them bodily to the Eastern Minnesota train. Not 
being satisfied with that he went back for others 
and perished in the flames, being overcome by the 
heat before he was able to save himself. Some 
idea can be had of the heat at some points at least, 
from the fact that at Hinckley, the steel car wheels 
of some of the freight cars were melted into the 
rails they stood on so that they seemed like one 
piece of iron. It is an established fact that 1,200 
degrees of Farenheit is required in addition to a 
blast to produce this result by artificial means. 

The escape of Kate J. Barnum the thirteen year 
daughter of Dr. E. E. Barnum of Pine City is per- 
haps one of the most interesting episodes of the 
horrible affair. She had been visiting at Hinckley 
and had intended to return to Pine City on the 
day of the fire. The friends with whom she staid 
all went to the Eastern Minnesota train and she 
went with them. She was not satisfied however 
to go to Duluth, but thought of the "limited" 
which was due at the other depot at 4:05, and it 
occurred to her, if she could get on board that 
train she could reach home and set the minds of 
her parents at rest, as to her safety and where- 
abouts. She decided to make the attempt and in 
spite of protests she started for the other depot, 




KATE |. BARNl'M. 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 175 

fifteen hundred feet away all alone, and with the 
one idea in view of reaching that Depot and wait- 
ing for the other train. She reached the depot and 
seeing the mill and lumber yards burning became 
alarmed and went back to the Eastern Minnesota 
train intending to remain with her friends and 
make her escape. Bnt the desire to get home was 
still strong and a second time she left the one to 
make the other train. A second time she reached 
the other depot. This time she found the depot on 
fire and also the bridge across the river. She then 
realized the train could not possibly get through 
and that her only hope of life lay in again reaching 
the Eastern Minnesota train. Again she set out; 
how this slip of a girl endured tortures and ex- 
posure that made the strongest men quake and 
even fall is little less than a miracle. On her way 
back the last time, she would run as far as she 
could and then lie down on the ground and after 
catching her breath would again run on and re- 
peat the operation. The train was finally reached 
and boarded, and another ray of sunshine saved to 
a happy household. All through this terrible ex- 
perience Kate had been entirely alone and as she 
said herself, she did not seem to be at all afraid, 
and it never occurred to her that she needed any- 
one to take care of her until she had reached the 
Emergency Train the last time, when she seemed 
to realize the peril through which she had passed 



176 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 

and wished for some one to take care of her. She 
found her protector in the person of Presiding El- 
der Shannon of Duluth, whom she knew, and to 
whose Duluth home she was taken and cared for 
until she could return to her parents at Pine City. 
Imagine if you can the feelings of a father who 
knew that such a daughter as this had been ex- 
posed to the flames and so far as he knew, had 
perished in a holocaust of this sort, and who was 
compelled by the call of duty to minister to the 
wants of others who had suffered from this same 
cause, for twelve long hours without any word of 
his daughter in any way and you will understand 
one reason that Dr- E. E. Barnum of Pine City has 
to remember that horrible day. Too much credit 
cannot be given Dr. Barnum of Pine City for his 
loyal devotion and heroic self-sacrifice to the work 
of alleviating the pains of the suffering and wound- 
ed survivors. His time and professional services 
were given freely gratuitously day and night, 
without rest or sleep for a period of seventy-two 
hours. Everything he could do was done freely 
and willingly even to the free use of his bank ac- 
count in purchase of medicines and hospital sup- 
plies. He is in truth one of nature's noblemen, we 
are glad to be able to give a likeness of him with 
this volume. The face is one that shows a man of 
unswerving integrity, earnest, sincerein all his deal- 
ings, conscientious, true to his highest ideal of right. 




E. E. BARNUM OK PINE CITY 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCEvS. 177 

A man who commands not only the respect out the 
love of the entire community in which he lives and 
one, whom, the humblest of his patients can point 
to, proud to be able to call such a man their 
1 'friend . " At the time the news was first brought 
to Pine City he was the only physician in the town 
and upon him devolved the responsibility of caring 
for the wounded sufferers. He accompanied the 
detachment of citizens of Pine City on the first ex- 
pedition to Hinckley. Their train was composed 
of eight hand-cars joined together with rough pine 
boards making a continuous train on which were 
transported the injured people that were picked up 
along the road. When the remains of a burned 
bridge was reached the train was disconnected, 
and the sufferers were either carried accross on the 
ten inch iron girders or down through the stream 
and up on the track again at the other side. Dr. 
Barnum's train of hand-cars was the first to 
reach the Skunk Lake survivors from the south af- 
ter the fire. They carrried the cars around the 
bridge and went on from there to the point where 
Root's train had been saved, picking up thirty- 
three dead bodies, and two men who had lived 
through it along the track. Soon after reaching 
the spot they made their way to Engineer Root 
and he was given a drink of milk from the hand 
of Atty Roberts, who singularly enough had been 
instrumental in times past of having Root arrest- 



178 PERvSONAL EXPERIENCES. 

ed and fined on account of some trouble in stop- 
ping the ' ' Limited ' ' at Pine City . The fireman Mc- 
Gowan was still throwing water and caring for 
his injured chief. An overcoat was put upon him 
and he was sent to Pine City. The responsibility 
of overseeing and directing the care of the wounded 
fell upon Dr. Barnum, although Dr. Cowan and 
Dr. Stephan of Hinckley, Dr. Harris of North 
Branch and two physicians of Rush City, besides 
two members of Dr. Barnum's family did much of 
the routine work. He had charge of the impro- 
vised hospitals at Pine City and for the first ten 
days never relaxed his vigilant attendance upon, nor 
his duties to them although he was greatly re- 
lieved by the removal of eighteen of those whose 
injuries were of the most serious nature to St. Paul 
and Minneapolis hospitals .—John Hogan of Hinck- 
ley is a cripple. On account of some affectation of 
tha hip he is unable to wa'k a single step and was 
of course absolutely helpless when the fire broke 
out, he says;- "I had been watching the fire and 
had made up my mind in case worst came to worst 
that the gravel pit would be the place for me. 
My brother had been out fighting fire and came in 
with his team and I called to him to take me to 
the gravel pit, he came, lifted me out of my chair 
and carrying me sat me into the wagon and took 
me over to the pit. Once arrived there it looked so 
terrible I asked him to put me on the Eastern 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 179 

Minnesota train, that we might get out of the 
horrible place entirely. He did so and then went 
back to the house after my mother, she refused to 
leave -without my invalid chair, so he put that on 
and they brought it with them and so it was 
saved. My brother did not get on the train and 
for two days in Duluth we could get no news of 
him in any way, but we finally found him, and 
you had better believe a happier meeting never 
took place." 

Mrs. Alex Cameron, of Hinckley, in speaking of 
the fire says: "My husband is a millwright. On 
the day of the fire we were out fishing at Grind- 
stone Lake. About 4 o'clock the sky was over- 
shadowed and everything became as dark as 
mid-night. We lighted the lamps in the camp, but 
soon we found that the fire was upon us and we 
ran for the boats and put out into the lake drifting 
with the waves. The wind was something terrific 
and the waves were running so high that we ex- 
pected every instant to be swamped, but decided 
we would rather drown than burn. When we got 
across the Lake we found an Indian camp and 
found some potatoes which we cooked and which 
served to allay the pangs of hunger. After stay- 
ing in camp over Sunday, Monday morning 
we started to walk to Hinckley where we arrived 
after a tramp of about ten miles over the burned 
ground." 



180 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 

Molly McNeil says: "About 2 o'clock I tried to 
induce my folks to get away on south-bound limited 
that left at that time, but they laughed at me. I 
then packed my trunk and tried to get it to the 
depot myself. A man came along and told me to 
drop the trunk and save myself. So I started out 
on the north road toward the river. I ran right 
straight across the bridge, being bewildered, I sup- 
pose, and when I came to my senses the river was 
half a mile away. Mrs. McNamara and her family 
were with me up to this time, and someone spoke 
of Root's train which they said would be along 
soon. I had forgotten all about the train, and told 
Mrs. McNamara we had better hurry to meet it. 
I ran on but she did not follow and that is the last 
I saw of her. I reached the train and we soon 
commenced backing up until finally Skunk Lake 
was reached. I jumped from the bridge, my only 
thought being to find water enough to drown my- 
self. My clothes were all afire and I rolled over in 
the mud and behind an old barrel that was 
there. While I was there I noticed a large snake 
coiled up beside me, but that didn't trouble me, I 
had something else to think of just then. I was in 
the water about two hours and got to Pine City 
about 8 o'clock the next morning. I must have 
been about a mile and a half from Hinckley when 
I met the train. 

Miss Mary McNeil, an older sister of Mollie's 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. lsl 

had a different yet not less exciting and terrible ex- 
perience than was endured by Mollie herself. At 
the time of the outbreak of the fire she was with 
her mother who was eighty years of age, and to- 
gether they started for the rive J. Mary says: 
" Mother told me to go back and look for Mollie, 
and I turned and started back, but could not en- 
dure the heat so we started for the river again, be- 
fore we got there a wave of heat swept over us that 
was terrible; it seemed to strangle me and I fell; 
I said "Mother we will have to die right here," 
but as it was only a little ways further we made 
another effort, and succeeded in reaching the river. 
We got to the w r ater and only had an apron to 
throw over our heads. We stayed in the water 
about three hours. While we w r ere there we saw 
several people die around us." It is a singular fact 
that the old lady in her eigtieth year should have 
been able to undergo the terrible ordeal, endure its 
excruciating pain and survive it in the end, w T hile 
strong men placed in similar circumstances perished 
beside her. 

Probably the most miraculous escape of the fire 
was that of Al. Fraser, of Hinckley, and his family, 
and it is more than probable that he of all the sur- 
vivors endured the greatest heat and lived to tell 
the story. He had a wife and three children, and 
managed to get one of the children on the Eastern 
Minnesota train, and then got out to help his wife 



1S2 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 

and the other two, but the train was so crowded 
that they were not able to get on board, and the 
train pulled out without them. They then went 
back into the town and he found a team, and load- 
ing his family on to the wagon drove out of town 
on the north road in the direction that proved to 
be so fatal to so many of the towns people. They 
went directly across the wagon bridge, and soon 
the heat became so intense that their wagon 
caught fire and burned furiously. They all got 
down onto the ground fully expecting that their 
last hour had come, and that they were doomed to 
perish there in the flames. In speaking of it after- 
wards, Mr. Fraser, said: ''After we had turned 
the first team loose, I noticed something coming 
toward me through the smoke which proved to be 
another team of horses and wagon which had been 
abandoned by their owners. I caught the team 
and loading the wife and little ones into the wagon 
drove on. I found four barrels and a trunk on 
the wagon, and after driving a little way I found 
that the barrels were full of water. Just think of 
it, four barrels of water at a time when above all 
things else water was to be most desired. I put 
my children right into the barrels, and broke 
open the trunk, and wetting the clothes I found 
there I put them round my wife. About that time 
two Norwegians came along and crawled into two 
of the barrels that we had used most of the water 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 183 

out of, and so escaped with their lives at least. 
One other gentleman was also saved by the water 
which put in its appearance so fortunately. Mr. 
Frazer was within a short distance of the dry swale, 
in which the one hundred and twenty people 
who went out on this north road lost their lives, at 
the time the terrible heat had reached them, and 
he says of it : " When that wave struck them one 
wail of anguish went up from the whole people as 
one man, and in less than a minute after every- 
thing was still except for the roar of the wind and 
the crackling of the flames It all came so quickly, 
an instant and all was ovei . There did not seem 
to be much suffering. There could not have been 
much. There was -not time. A moment after that 
first intense wave had passed not one of those 
hundred and twenty people were conscious, and I 
do not believe they were alive. The next morning 
when they were found the bodies did not seem to 
be badly distorted as if there had been a struggle 
for life, but they were found lying on their faces in 
the sand or else on their backs with their hands 
elasped over their mouths, showing their last 
thought must have been one of protection from the 
iierv breath." 







CHAPTER XV. 

MORE EXPERIENCES. 



imilar though the 
stories of the survi- 
vors may be they 
differ in detail. Of 
course all have the 
same general char- 
acteristics and re- 
cite an experience 
excruciating and terrible. Their similiarity is 
especially noticeable in the towns where numbers 
chose a similar avenue of escape, but in the out- 
lying districts over which the fire had passed, the 
escape of the settlers was attended by perils often 
more appalling and always more varied than that 
of the towns men. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to give an idea 
of escape of some of those who were in the country 
districts when the fire reached them. The escape 
of the family of J. Erickson, a resident of Sand- 
stone, is remarkable. On the day of the fire Mr. 

184 



MORE EXPERIENCES. 185 

Erickson, with two sons and one daughter were at 
Sandstone Junction where he owned a small saw- 
mill and quite a piece of ground, and were engaged 
in harvesting the small crop of potatoes the 
ground had produced in the drought of the 
summer. His wife and one daughter were at the 
postoffice at Sandstone, and one daughter of the 
family was teaching school at Partridge. At the 
first approach of the flames Mr. Erickson and the 
boys went to fighting fire about the mill, finding 
they could not save it they went to the potato 
patch, and as that soon proved too hot for safety, 
not to say comfort, they started for a small lake 
about a quarter of a mile distant. It soon 
became so dark that they became confused, 
and in some way the old gentleman became separa- 
ted from the children. They could hear each other 
call, although the smoke was dense, sight was im- 
possible a short distance away. The children got 
into the wagon and made their way to the lake in 
this way. The old gentleman became completely 
turned around, got off the road and was going 
directly from the lake when he heard the voice of one 
of his boys calling him; he answered and guided 
by the sound found the boy and made his way 
to the water where he found the other children 
with the team. As the first burst of the fire swept 
over them the horses became frightened and got 
away from the boy who was holding them and got 



186 MORE EXPERIENCES. 

burned. After the fire had passed they walked to 
Sandstone, three and a half miles and found that, 
as Mr. Erickson tersely expressed it. "All gone to 
h — 1." After wandering around awhile they made 
their way to the river and found the wife and 
other daughter. At the first approach of the fire 
they thought it was a cyclone and went to the 
cellar. They discovered their mistake, however, 
and after doing so had only five minutes to reach 
the river before the storm burst over them in all its 
fury. The girl got out the mone^- belonging to 
Uncle Sam and saved that, but left quite an amount 
of her own money in the house, which was already 
burning, and as they were leaving the steps of the 
store the roof of the whole structure fell in so that 
they were none too soon. The daughter at Part- 
ridge also made her escape, so that here was an 
exception to the rule, a family whose ranks had 
not been decimated- by the fire. The case of 
Thomas J. Henderson, deserves more than passing 
notice as being one of the saddest and most 
pathetic incidents of the whole affair. Mr. Hender- 
son is a. logger who lives at Pine City, but who 
had gone with his two sons, aged fourteen and six- 
teen respectively, to a point about five miles north 
of Hinckley where they were engaged in opening a 
new road through the woods for the St. Paul & 
Duluth R. R. In speaking of the fire Mr. Hender- 
son, said: "I was working with my two boys 



MORE EXPERIENCES. 187 

about a mile west of the track when the fire ap- 
proached. We had noticed things looked a little 
threatening, but anticipated no danger until the 
fire was nearly upon us when we started for Mr. 
Greenfield's house about a quarter of a mile east 
of the track. When we reached there we found the 
family going to the cellar of the house and we 
went in with them. We had been there but a short 
time when it became apparent that none of us 
would escape if we staid there long, so we crawled 
out and ran for a potato patch close by. Our 
clothes were burning as we left the cellar, and I 
had a hard fight to put out the blaze. After I did 
so, the bo3^s one after the other became overcome 
with the heat and died right there before my eyes 
Mr. Henderson escaped though his right hand was 
terribly burned. After the fire had subsided he 
made his way to Pine City where he met his wife. 
who seeing him come alone without her boys 
realized the truth before a word was spoken, and 
with a wail of "Oh, My God! My boys are 
gone," burst into a paroxysm of tears and moans 
"Yes, they are gone," answered the bewildered 
father, and for days after that the mere mention 
of the fire would throw him into convulsions. 

Mr. M. E. Greenfield, at whose home Mr. Hender- 
son and his boys sought refuge fared even worse 
than Mr. Henderson. In speaking of the affair he 
said : "I had defended myself against fires on the 



188 MORE EXPERIENCES. 

earth. I had no idea that fire was to come down 
upon me from heaven, btyt that was what it did. 
Soon after we entered the cellar a shower of living 
lire began falling all around us, thicker than any 
hail storm you ever saw, and earring the coals and 
embers from the burning of the lumber yards at 
Hinckley. In the cellar with me were my wife and 
six children, my hired man, John Parrish, and Mr. 
Henderson, a neighbor, with his two little boys. 
When the house began burning over our heads we 
determined to stay in the cellar as long as we could, 
for we thought every instant that torrents of rain 
would surely fall, for the sound we heard was ex- 
actly like heavy thunder, and kept coming nearer. 
When the floor began to fall in, and the dining 
table crashed through upon us, we saw that to 
remain there was sure death, and we opened the 
outside cellar door, and tried to all get out. My 
wife and all of my children got out. John 
Parrish, I think, must have fallen back into the 
cellar way after helping out two of the children. 
Mr. Henderson also got out, and I can not say 
whether his two boys perished in the cellar or 
somewhere in the clearing. After all were in the 
potatoe patch in the clearing, one of the children, 
the oldest girl, ran back into the burning house, 
and I found her bones among the ashes of our 
ruined home. In the fields I tore the clothing off 
from all of the children to keep them from catching 



MORE EXPERIENCES. 189 

fite, and watched over them and my wife, going 
from one to another when I heard them cry out— 
for it was impossible to see anything— until I 
thought that all of them were dead ; when I lay 
down, expecting nothing less than that in a few 
moments I, like them, should be dead. I was soon 
aroused by a cry from my ten-year-old boy, Charlie, 
who is here with me. He wanted me to help him 
put out the fire in his mother's clothing. That call 
for help saved all our lives. I had been directly in 
the path of the hot air blowing from the burning 
house, and when I went to him I escaped from it, 
and found the air quite endurable, for the worst 
heat from the fires at Hinckley had passed. I 
found my wife still alive, and we succeeded in put- 
ting out the fire in her clothes, although she was 
terribly burned. My little boy kept his presence of 
mind through it all. He tells me now that he kept 
from burning up by rolling in the dirt to put out 
the flames which started in his clothes. I do not 
know how I escaped with so little harm, for during 
all the time I did not think once of saving my- 
self." 

Mr. Greenfield was found in a very despondent 
mood, and expressed the opinion that it would 
have been better if all had perished together, for he 
said he had not a cent in the world, and would not 
know what to do to provide for himself or his 
family, now pitifully small. He was greatly en- 



190 MORE EXPERIENCES. 

couraged when told of the generosity of all people 
in contributing to the relief fund, and seemed 
greatly rejoiced over the bare possibility that there 
might be even a little help for him. He says that 
the fiery cyclone tore up the roots of some of the 
largest trees on his farm and carried them long- 
distances through the air. Mr. Greenfield's hired 
man John Parrish, of whom he speaks, must have 
gotten out of the cellar with the others as his bcdy 
was found six weeks after about three-quarters of 
a mile from the Greenfield homestead. In his effort 
to escape he had followed an ox away from the 
house depending on the animal's instinct to lead 
him to a place of safety. When he was found dead 
by the side of the ox his hand was still clinched 
with a firm grip on the ox's tail, which means he had 
undoubtedly used to keep from being separated 
from what he hoped was a means of escape. 

The name of Mrs. A. G. Crocker, of Finlayson 
deserves a place with those of the heroes of the 
fire. Mrs. Crocker is a slender, delicate looking 
woman, but many a man might envy her heroic 
spirit. After fighting the fire demon all day 
Saturday and discovering that her house was 
about the Only one left in the place, she gathered 
there all the neighbors whom she could find, think- 
ing as she said. '• I could give them something to 
eat, and if the necessity arose, we could all take 
refuge in the little pond near my house.' * 



MORE EXPERIENCES. i<jl 

About 5 o'clock a fearful roaring was heard and 
the cyclone of fire rushed upon them. They all 
ran for the pond, wrapping the children in wet 
blankets and throwing water over each other. 
There they staid until near midnight, throwing 
themselves down in the water as the waves of fire 
would pass over them. 

By this time the women and children were so 
chilled and stiff, they decided to leave the pond and 
fight the fire from the house which was again in 
great danger of burning. The children were left 
on the shore of the pond, and the women and Mr. 
Crocker fought fire until daylight, and all day Sun- 
day they all alternated between the fire and pond, 
seeking relief from fire in the pond. 

Sunday night Mrs. Crocker made her way to the 
railroad and flagged the relief train as it went 
down to Hinckley. She was told to get her friends 
together and they would all be brought to Duluth 
on the return of the train. 

"Then,", said Mrs. Crocker in telling of her 
escape, "ensued another night of fighting for our 
lives. By this time we had used up all our provi- 
sions and when the rescuers picked us up Sunday 
night or Monday morning, whichever it was, we 
were completely exhausted and could not have held 
out another hour." Nevertheless Mrs. Crocker 
immediately went to work, doing all she could for 
those less fortunate than she. 



192 MORE EXPERIENCES. 

Mrs. Crocker returned to Finlayson Wednesday, 
taking with her a supply of provisions for the 
sufferers there. As her house is standing, she said 
there was a great deal she could do sheltering and 
feeding the homeless there. 

The fate of the Best family who lived about two 
miles south east of Hinckley is one of the most 
heartrending incidents of the whole affair. Out of 
a family of thirteen, John Best Jr., and his wife 
and child are the only remaining representatives, 
and upon this one man, John Best Jr., devolved the 
task of giving a decent burial to his father, mother, 
four brothers, two sisters, one neice and a friend 
who happened to be stopping with the family at 
the time. 

Express Messenger Vandersluis of the Eastern 
Minnesota train that was ditched and came . so 
near being consumed between Hinckley and Poke- 
gama on the day of the fire tells his story as 
folio ws: 

"When we got to Hinckley everything was 
smoke. It had been that way for two weeks, so 
we didn't take any particular notice of it. We 
left Hinckley at 2:30 Saturday afternoon. When 
we got one mile out everything was as dark as 
night and one mass of flames. Our train consisted 
of an engine and baggage car and coach. When 
we got five or six miles out of Hinckley we noticed 
that the ties were burning under our train. We 



MORE EXPERIENCES. 193 

went through this for about five miles, expecting 
every minute to go through bridges, as we felt 
them weakening under the weight of our train. 
All of a sudden the engine jumped the track and 
turned over on its side, the coach following, but 
keeping upright. There were but two passengers 
aboard, and these, together with Conductor Ed. 
Parr, Engineer Will Yoge, Fireman Joe Lacher and 
three brakemen and myself, made up the list of all 
on board. 

"About 5 o'clock Saturday evening the conduc- 
tor and myself walked over to Pokegama, two 
miles away, over the burned ties, passing three 
charred bodies on the way, with their faces buried 
in the sand. When we arrived at Pokegama Creek 
we discovered that the span bridge had beeit 
burned and also the entire village of Pokegama. 
All the villagers that were saved were in Pokegama 
creek, panic stricken. We returned to the coach, 
and shortly after the people in the ereek walked 
on to our coach, in all about twent-five men, 
women and children. We stayed there until Sun- 
day morning at 5 o 'clock . It was a terrible nigh t . 
The experience I shall never forget. We tore up 
our shirts and everything in the way of linen and 
soaked them with water, and kept them over the 
faces of the two passengers and the people from 
Pokegama. They were suffering terribly, being 
choked and blinded. The conductor, engineer, 



194 MOKE EXPERIENCES. 

firemen and myself left for Hinckley, leaving the 
forakemen and others in the coach asleep or parti- 
ally so. We found nothing at Hinckley, except the 
Great Northern four-stall roundhouse and water 
tank and coal shed. We went into the water tan£ 
and found some good water of which we drank 
freely. We also found several loaves of bread, 
which we broke and ate. We then went into the 
roundhouse and found some bread and crackers, 
which we sent back to the sufferers in the coach, 
and this party was afterward rescued by a relief 
crew from Pine Cit}\ 

"At least 100 cars of wheat and other mer- 
chandise was burned in the Hinckley yards. We 
walked around to where the St. Panl and Duluth 
depot formerly stood, and took a train carrying 
sufferers to Pine City. An abundant supply of 
food and clothes had been sent from Pine City, 
and the sufferers were being taken care of as fast as 
possible. We saw the dead lying all around. We 
staj^ed in Hinckley about twenty minutes. Every- 
thing was filled with smoke, and we could not see 
a block away. I do not think that the reports are 
at all exaggerated." 

The following clipping from a Duluth paper is 
directly in point as it gives * ' ' Honor to whom 
honoris due." Presiding Elder W. A. Shannon, 
who was on the Eastern Minnesota passenger 
train — the first to return from Hinckley Saturday 



MORE EXPERIENCES- 195 

night — makes the following mention of a coura- 
geous act that has until now escaped recognition : 

" As one of those who took the perilous ride from 
Hinckley to Duluth on the Eastern Minnesota 
train in ths midst of the fiery furnace of Saturday 
last, I wish to add my testimony to the courage 
and bravery of the trainmen. It took nerve to 
stand still with flames leaping toward and around 
them on the wrings of a tornado— as these men 
did — till 500 people should get on board. Con- 
ductor Powers and the crew of the freight train 
which joined us in the mad rush for life, indeed 
every man connected with the service is deserving 
of highest praise." 

"I wish especially to refer to 0. L. Beach, the 
brakeman of the passenger who took his stand on 
the tender of the freight engine — which was back- 
ing up and without head light — and never flinched 
through - all that perilous ride of sixty miles 
through smoke and flame. 

"Such devotion to duty on the part of these 
men under such trying circumstances is worthy of 
public recognition. No one who took that awful 
ride will ever forget the men who brought us 
through in safety to Duluth. 

The following account of the coming of the 
great fire is related by Mrs. James Garnness of Fin- 
layson, whose farm stood on high ground over- 
looking Hinckley, Sandstone and the surroundiinv 



196 MORE EXPERIENCES. 

country. About the middle of the day, which was 
an intensely hot one, the air grew so heated that she 
could not hold her hand up over her head for any 
length of time. It was like plunging it into an 
over heated oven. Then the air gew so hot lower 
down it was almost impossible to breath. Look- 
ing in the direction of Hinckley they saw flames as 
if darting from the sky in " tongues," and 
"sheets," and watched the terrible spectacle grow 
more and more awful. The town of Sandstone 
then became enveloped in the same kind of flame, 
while Hinckley was lost sight of in the dense 
smoke. The flames spread rapidly, and though at 
first they could not believe it possible the fire would 
come as far as they were, they very soon saw there 
was almost instant danger. The first appearance 
there was a ball of flame which fell from the air 
and lighted beside the gate of the front yard, burn- 
ing itself out without spreading in the least like a 
gasoline flame. Then these became more frequent 
and they saw that all the country was to be en- 
veloped in the rushing whirl of fire. The very air 
seemed to burst into flame ; the heavens rained 
fire, and the clouds above so close to earth opened 
and shut, making the alternate light and darkness 
almost blinding. The family all went to some 
ploughed rising ground back of the house, carry- 
ing with them large cans of water and blankets. 
They had to move very quiekiy for the heat grew 



MORE EXPERIENCES. li>7 

so intense, and the flaming air came nearer and 
nearer, and the darkness enveloped all things. The 
whole family crawled tinder the blankets, which 
one of them from time to time would wet from the 
large milk cans of water beside them, and this 
they did by thrusting out their hands quickly and 
upsetting first one and then another, as the 
blankets grew hot almost to bursting into flames, 
while their houses and all that belonged to them 
burned. They lay under the blankets for hours, 
and when the worst had passed, spent the night on 
the ground longing for day. When it came the 
sight can better be imagined than described. 
There are many strange freaks related as to this 
extraordinary fire, and one of them occurred at 
this place. Two farm machines, one a harrow and 
one a reaper stood on a field not far apart. The 
harrow was scarcely scorched though made of 
wood, but the other was completely burned, even 
the iron and steel parts melted into a shapeless 
mass by the intense heat. 




CHAPTER XVI. 

ANOTHER STORY — SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 



nterprise, has al- 
ways been and still 
is the watchword 

V of Hinckley, and in 

J^i the race, Mr. An- 

* gus Hay, editor of 

Hinckley Enterprise is always to be found in the 
front rank. It affords a pleasure to me to be able 
to give those who may peruse these pages the story 
of one, who took such a prominent and important 
part in the events which we have essayed to chron- 
icle in this little volume. The reader may be as- 
sured that the tale is honestly and modestly told, 
and certain it is, no hero ever faced a dangerous 
task with more fortitude than was displayed by 
Angus Hay and his companion Carl Yeenhoneen, 
in their perilous trip over a smoking and burnings 
track, when they carried the news of Hinckley de- 
struction to Pine City and the outside world. Mr. 
Hay writes as follows:- 

19S 



ANOTHER STORY -SOME PERTINENT FACTS; 199 

' The experience of one who has passed through 
the Hinckley fire! The truth would seem like the 
mildest fancies of crazy imagination; no pen can 
portray its terrible reality; no tongue can even tell 
the bare truth of the awful ordeal. At the noon 
hour word was given that the villagerswest of the 
St. Paul & Duluth tracks were being hard pressed 
by flames Which threatened their homes . Chief Craig 
of the fire department ordered his men out, and 
volunteers followed the firemen to assist in saving 
the property. The fight was a noble one; the west 
side of the village and the Brennan Lumber Com- 
pany's mill plant were in great danger; the hose 
was too short to reach the spot where the fire was 
the greatest. The chief telegraphed to Rush City 
for hose. The alarm was growing greater, and 
every man and boy in the village who could leave 
his home was carrying water to quench the flames. 
At short intervals the wind was so hot it almost 
blistered one's skin. The men worked like beavers 
to keep the flames from crossing to the main part 
of the village east of the track, and every one was 
confident the fight was won, but the fire which 
started from the Mission Creek fire came stealthily 
along like a tiger. The wind blew a hurricane; 
strong men were hard pressed oftentimes to move 
against it. The south-bound train on the Duluth 
arrived at 2 o'clock— two hours late— and many 
of the women and children went south to places of 



200 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT PACTS. 

safety. From this hour on the fire had control, 
though it met a worthy foe in the gallant little 
band who fought it for supremacy. Women be- 
came alarmed, but their fears were quieted by 
• those who were none the less in fear, but who had 
cool heads. The southmost house on Main street 
was Nels Anderson's; on saving this home de- 
pended the safety of the village. Teams hauling 
water, were dashing along the street; women 
were afraid, and children were crying; men's faces 
were a study — bleached with smoke and driven 
sand and blanched with fear for the safety of their 
homes and their families. 

Chief Craig came dashing down the street on 
his horse and cried, "We can't save the town; it's 
burning at the south end; run to the gravel pit; 
don't lose a moment, but fly!" Then commenced 
a hurrying and a scurrying for safety such as I be- 
lieve few, if any, in this place ever took part in or 
saw or ever will see again. I was four blocks 
from my office when Anderson's house caught fire. 
I ran as quickly as I could to the office and when 
James Willard, my faithful typo, and I tan through 
the office to the rear door large coals were falling 
in the yard. We intended saving several articles 
in the print shop, but soon gave the idea up when 
we saw distressed women and children trying to 
reach a place of safety. Picking up the "Enter- 
prise" files and a "fat" subscription book we went 



ANOTHER STORY-SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 201 

out to help those who needed assistance. Some 
woman with three children was tottering along 
the sidewalk. I picked up her baby and carried it 
until I saw a man driving with a horse and buggy 
toward the Eastern depot. I put the little one 
into the rig and went back to help the mother. 
The Eastern train had left the depot then and the 
mother and children were put in the gravel pit. I 
went down the street again to the corner of the 
Morrison hotel, but could not endure the heat 
around the corner. It drove me back, and I ran 
for the gravel pit. I saw a woman crossing the 
Duluth tracks at the round house. I believe now 
it was Mrs. Blanchard. Her body was found there. 
She seemed to strike her foot against the rail and 
stumbling, fell. Two people were on the streets. 

Two women were praying in front of the city 
hall; one was on the driveway, the other on the 
grass beside her. With unintentional disrespect I 
stopped the prayer meeting and started the ladies 
for the pit. Water was better than prayers just 
at that moment, and I'm glad the women are safe. 
Seventy people — men, women and children— hud- 
dled together in that muddy pond with but three 
feet of water. It is a block and a half longand half 
a block wide. Houses on the east and south and the 
depot on the west were all burning. The wind 
blew direct from the south, and a continual shower 
of coals and sparks fell on us. Then began an 



202 ANOTHER STORY — SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 

ordeal of fire lasting about twenty minutes through 
which I believe few could stand to pass again. It 
was terrible in the extreme. It was necessary to 
keep throwing water on the women, and it de- 
volved upon very few men to do it. Such a time 
as that one wishes he had as many arms as an 
octupus; the Lord knows they could have 
been used to good advantage. The roar of the 
storm was so great it was impossible to make 
one's self heard two feet away. But the wind 
Avould carry the almost inaudible mutterings of a 
prayer along to leeward, and the hearers, I think, 
uttered a silent "amen." We got out of the water 
in two hours and a half after entering it, and the 
hot winds too soon dried our clothing. About 
seven o'clock those who had saved themselves in 
the river began arriving at the pit. They were the 
worst used up crowd I have ever seen. Most of 
the women had to be supported by s trpng arms 
and the children were carried. Then the first 
volunteer search party of the great fire went down 
to the river, where a young man said he saw dead 
bodies in the river. The party pulled out Mrs. 
Martin Martinson and her three children, and 
helped others out of the water who were unable 
to move. Most of them would have died in a 
short time if left there very much longer. 

At half-past eight the survivors of the holocaust 
who had remained in town straggled down to the 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 203 

Eastern Minnesota railroad round-house, the only 
building saved in the village. From the round- 
house a good view could be had of the ruins, and 
though our eyes were sore and swollen from the 
smoke, heat and sand, and though we gazed on the 
ruins of home and business, the scene presented 
was grandly fascinating. It reminded one of the 
great panorama of the " Destruction of Pompeii." 
The streets looked like some climax in a grand 
drama, the golden glow from the burning build- 
ings lighting up the scene in a manner strangely 
grand. Aftei a couple of hours rest in the round- 
house, seven of us organized for a trip to Pine City 
to get relief. We took a hand-car and started. 
Our trip was necessarily slow, as the rails were 
warped in places and we were afraid the culverts 
were all burned out. It was my first experience as 
a pilot on the road, and I confess I know little of 
the track, but the work was to be done, and it 
was. At Mission Creek we met the work train 
putting in new culverts and repairing the track. 
After considerable talk, we persuaded them to re- 
turn to Pine City. " Hinckley is burned " spread 
with lightning-like rapidit}^ through the village, 
and its inhabitants were not slow in coming to the 
succor ,of their unfortunate neighbors . The north- 
bound limited, which was waiting there for orders, 
was loaded with provisions and men anxious to 
assist in the relief work. Arriving at Hinckley, 



204 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 

food was given to the hungry and the sufferers 
were made as comfortable as possible and taken 
to Pine City. The work crew, with four hand-cars 
loaded with relief men, started for Skunk Lake^ 
where the south-bound St. Paul & Duluth limited 
was burned. We arrived there about three o'clock 
in the morning and found the belated passengers 
camped beside the slough. We loaded passengers 
bound for St. Paul on the hand-cars and began the 
return to Hinckley about daylight. Along the 
track was strew some thirty bodies who had suc- 
cumbed to the fire and heat. At one point a wom- 
an lay, face downward, her arms outstretched, 
and under each arm lay two little children. She 
bared her body to the heat in the hopes that her 
little ones might be saved. At another point the 
paternal love of a father was shown in the same 
way for his eight-year-old boy. Coming back to 
Hinckley, w r e were told by Allen Fraser, the man 
who made the greatest fight and won in the Hinck- 
ley fire, that more than a hundred dead bodies lay 
in the marsh where he had saved his wife and little 
ones and two men. The report was too true. It was 
a gruesome sight, indeed, to see at first at day- 
break a field of two acres covered with one hun- 
dred and thirty burned bodies. No battle-field 
ever could present a sight so terrible when death 
in its most horrible form mowed down its victims. 
In most cases there was little suffering before 




hinckley's fire chief iohx t. craig. 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 205 

death. The victims, apparently, were suffocated 
with smoke before the cruel flames lashed their 
bodies. Sunday afternoon organized relief corps 
assumed charge of the work, and from this on the 
gruesome task of burying the dead and allieviat- 
ing the suffering of the burned was carried on. 

Anyone item in anyone instance could be woven 
into columns of truth— startling, and, to one who 
was so fortunate as to have never had the ex- 
perience, seemingly unreal. 

But Hinckly will rise again. Its business men 
are of that true blue stamp that can never be dis- 
couraged. Its people are sincere in their under- 
takings, and have confidence, and justly, too, in 
the future of the village. Though the fire made the 
loss enormous as to property and inestimable as 
to life, it placed it twenty years ahead as a farm- 
ing country. When the legislature meets it will 
probably be called upon to place monuments in 
memory of those who fell at Hinckley, Sandstone 
and Pokegama. 

When we again hear the songs of the birds in the 
summer, and the golden grain is being gathered in 
autumn from the fertile soil around Hinckley, the 
tale of the great Hinckley fire will be still being 
told. 

I would be ungrateful indeed were I to end this 
feeble sketch without, as one of 1,500 people, ex- 
tending my most sincere thanks to all the people 



206 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 

• 

of the country for the generosity, kindness and 
assistance given these people when "a friend in 
need was a friend indeed." Words are inadequate 
to express the feeling which wells up within me 
when I would thank the people for their kindness. 

Angus Hay. 
Rev. P. Knudson, the Presbyterian minister at 
Hinckley, proved himself -worthy of bearing the 
title of a shepherd of his flock, for no shepherd was 
ever more solicituous for the welfare of those 
under his charge than was Mr. Kundson and his 
estimable wife in this hour of trial. In speaking 
of the affair, he said that over two hundred of 
those who were burned might have been saved had 
they heeded advice and kept away from the river. 
" The fact is," he went on, " they lost their reason 
and stampeded like a lot of frightened cattle head- 
long to destruction. Some tried to escape by 
teams, and they were found dead in a heap after- 
wards. I never saw a sadder sight. The horrors 
of a battlefield are nothing in comparison. None 
of us expected to be alive when the fire waves 
passed over us, and those who did escape were 
alone and helpless on the charred desert without 
anything to eat or drink. Few bad any clothes. 
I got six burned watermelons, and they were de- 
voured by the people in the twinkling of an eye. 
My wife milked one of the cows which escaped in 
the pit, and that kept the children's bodies aiid 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 207 

souls together. The Eastern Minnesota's water- 
tank, the only structure left above ground, was 
afterwards discovered, and proved our salvation. 
Providence alone saved that for us. We were 
all too blind to see each other/' 

The greatest sorrow caused at Hinckley was 
occasioned by the horrible death of Thomas G. 
Dunn, telegraph operator at the St. Paul & Du- 
luth station. Mr. Dunn was a universal favorite 
with the boys of the St. Paul & Duluth. He was 
the greatest hero of all the railroad men. He 
waited at the key in the telegraph office for orders 
for the limited train due in five minutes. But no 
orders came, no train came, and the depot was 
burning over the brave boy's head. Friends tried 
to persuade him to leave his key, but he remained 
until every passenger had left the depot. No one 
else could do it. Other depots were closed. No 
one could give orders ; no train could leave. His 
grave is hallowed by the salt tears of the entire 
community as well as by his fellow workers on the 
line of the St. Paul & Duluth. His name will 
always be remembered as worthy of the highest 
praise, and an elaborate monument will be erected 
by his sorrowing friends to mark the spot where 
he lies. 

Another very sad case is the death of Orlando 
Rowley. He was on the limited that burned at 
Skunk Lake, and when the fire had passed his body 



208 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 

was found about three hundred yards from the 
point where the train had stopped in a little trench 
which runs from the shallow water to a swamp 
near the lake, which he had undoubtedly entered 
and followed, thinking by this means to reach the 
lake and thus find deeper water and safety. Mr. 
Rowley was the general passenger and freight 
agent of the Duluth & Winnipeg road, and was 
quite well known in both of the Twin Cities as 
well as Duluth. 

The list of heroes of this great fire will never be 
enrolled save in that list where every man's deeds 
are recorded. 

There was the engineer of the "limited," who 
picked out the only green spot for miles and bore 
two hundred souls to safety through the terrible 
ordeal, standing erect in the roasting heat, which 
only iron fibres could endure. 

There was the little hero, a West Duluth boy of 
fourteen, who dragged two smaller children along 
the weary miles from the wreck of the train to 
salvation, where rescuers found them. 

There was the young lover who carried his sick 
betrothed for a mile through the flames on his 
back to a place of safety, while the heat was so 
intense that others walking beside him, and with 
no burden, lay down to die. 

There was the man who, after fighting the fire 
for two hours, took up a crippled brother and bore 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 209 

him in safety to the relief train. 

There were telegraph operators who, by quick 
decision and quicker action, saved hundreds of 
lives. 

There was the daughter who stayed beside the 
bedside of her mother, who being in the pangs of 
maternity, could not be moved, and who was not 
to be dragged away from sharing her mother's 
death until forcibly pulled from the already burn- 
ing house. 

There was gruff and good-natured Bull Henly, 
the Hinckley sectionman, who stood in the road 
and turned the steps of the flying people towards 
the gravel pit. 

There was little Freda Johnson, of Sandstone, 
who saved the lives of her father and mother and 
that of her little brother by inducing them to go 
to the river instead of into the cellar as they had 
intended. 

There were the dozens of men whose positions in 
death, as it instantaneously seized them, showed 
they were hastening at all speed into the very face 
of flames to the rescue of loved ones. 

It were useless to attempt to enumerate them 
all. Heroes were on all sides, indeed it required 
heroic attributes to enable anyone to endure such 
scenes and still retain their presence of mind enough 
to assist those who were weaker and less fortunate 
than themselves. 



210 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTvS. 

A general survey of the district after the fire had 
passed revealed a great many incidents which 
were interesting and at the same time hard to 
account for. 

Among the many unidentified dead was a large 
man frightfully burned. Underneath him was a 
fragment of one of the pockets of his pants. In 
this charred receptacle were three silver dollars 
melted together, also a number of coins of smaller 
denominations. Close alongside him was a set of 
loading tools for a shotgun, but no gun was found 
in the vicinity. Scarcely two feet away from the 
body was a flask full of powder which had not ex- 
ploded, nor did it seem in the least affected by the 
fier}' ordeal, although part of the brass work of 
the flask was melted into a common mass with the 
copper sides. 

At Sandstone on the damaged bridge of the East 
em railway the north and south approaches were 
reduced to cinders while the middle span was in- 
tact, and on this part of the structure was found a 
large dog which had evidently run onto the bridge 
and was hemmed in by the fires at both ends. He 
remained upon his perch on the bridge for three 
days, and w T hen a bridge man finally climbed to 
where he was he immediately attacked the man 
rather savagely, and it was thought he had gone 
mad and that the}' would be obliged to shoot him. 
This did not prove to be the case, however, and he 



ANOTHER STORY — SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 211 

was lowered with a rope and taken to Duluth, 
and henceforth will bear a name which it would 
seem even he might remember, that of Sandstone. 

Near Skunk Lake is another and deeper body of 
water, and into this life-saving pond some fifteen 
settlers crept, followed not only by their domestic 
animals, but by two deer, two timber wolves and 
a big black bear besides smaller wild animals. 

Close by the river at Hinckley on the south side 
is the remnants of a kitchen garden. A large num- 
ber of cabbages are there and they are thoroughly 
cooked, as well as some potatoes, carrots and 
onions . All the trees , big and little in the enclosure, 
are totally destroyed, yet a light picket fence is 
almost unhurt. 

An unknown Swedish woman and child were 
found in the Hinckley swamp close to town. The 
woman was lying on the charred leaves of a Swed- 
ish Bible. Late Saturday evening some charred 
leaves of what appears to be part of the same book 
floated down from the clouds and landed in Du- 
luth on First street near the Kitchi Gammi club 
house. 

One woman, when she saw the flames approach- 
ing, and seeing no means of escape, thought to 
lessen her danger by throwing the contents of a 
barrel over herself. There was not a great deal of 
it, and she thought it was water, but it proved to 



212 ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 

be kerosene ! Imagine the condition of that wom- 
an when the flames surrounded her. 

Another instance connected with the fire that 
will prove interesting : Engineer C . P . Fadden and 
Fireman N. Reider, of the St. Paul & Duluth rail- 
way, were bringing crippled Engine 19 on oneside> 
light, from Duhith to St. Panl, and had reached 
Hinckley before the fire. The dispatcher was just 
sending him orders for continuance when the fire 
reached the wires south of Hinckley and they went 
down. This tied him up at Hinckley with his en- 
gine, and when the flames struck the town, without 
going through the formality of asking permission, 
he ran his engine over the Eastern Minnesota 
tracks and backed down near their round-house, 
which was protected slightly by an open patch 
and a grove of green trees, and was the only build- 
ing left standing in the town. The engine was 
slightly scorched and lagging burned, but her crew 
stayed with her and brought her out in good shape. 

Engineer Fadden is next to Root in standing 
rights, having been on the road since 1872, and 
when asked for a description of the conflagration 
at its height, flames and smoke being all around 
and over him, replied " he had been in hell, and saw 
everything there was to be seen except Satan him- 
self." 

Another instance which illustrates thecapricious- 
ness of the fire was the case of a farmer living a 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 313 

short distance from the St. Paul & Duluth track, 
which he reached and was following in an attempt 
to escape until he became bewildered and exhausted 
by the heat and smoke, and concluded he would 
have to give up and that his time had come. 
Blinded and suffocated, suffering intensely from 
the heat, he ran into the woods at the side of the 
track and there fell unconscious. When sensibility 
returned he found himself in the center of a little 
plot of ground not over twelve feet square, which 
had been spared by the fire. Hearing a hand-car 
pass a short time after, he made his way with 
difficulty to the track and received aid from the 
relief band . He told the men his story and showed 
them the spot where he had lain, and everything on 
^all sides of this one spot had burned to a crisp. 

A team of horses were driven into a clearing and 
saved, yet the neck-yoke of the wagon was burned 
from the tongue. 

Numberless incidents of this kind could be cited, 
which seem almost incredible to one who has not 
actually seen them. For instance, a young sapling 
was found growing and in good condition not six 
feet from a tree thirty inches in diameter, which 
had not only been burned up, but the very earth 
at its roots had beencousumed. 

A window holding at the same time both a sash 
and screen was found after the fire, one lying on 
top of the other, with the glass of the sash so 






214 ANOTHER STORY—SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 

melted over the wire of the screen that both seemed; 
as one. 

In the cellar of one house was found the remains 
of what was once a watch and chain. As it fell 
the chain hung out almost straight, and had been 
melted into a solid bar. The watch lay at an 
angle, the stem downward. The case had melted 
and collected in a lump where the stem had been 
and the works had been transformed into a shape- 
less mass attached to the other. 

Foreman Jim Bean, of the Brennan Lumber com- 
pany, who was lost, had left his watch hanging in 
his vest in the mill. A little heap of blackened 
metal was recognized as Jim Bean's watch by a 
little fragment of a thin, twisted chain which 
escaped the action of the fire to make it certain 
that its owner had gone to his death. 

Perhaps more marvelous was the failure to burn 
of the claim shanty of Frank Baumcher, just below 
Mission Creek on the east side of theDuluth tracks. 
Loosely put together and covered with ragged 

tarred building paper, a more inviting object never 
was exposed to fire. Green timber went up in 
in smoke, yet it was overlooked, perhaps as being 
to valueless to cut any figure in the total of de- 
struction. 

Trees were hollowed out and burned into all sorts 
of grotesque shapes. Telegraph poles were burned 
off in the center, leaving the stump below and the 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 215 

lop with its cross-arm dangling from the wires 
above. 

Where there was not enough above the surface 
to satisfy the appetite of the fire it ate its way 
down into the depths along the roots of the trees. 

Rather an odd circumstance was that experienced 
by J. T. Clark and Tom Campbell, of Hinckley, 
who on the day of the fire were fishing at Lake 
Eleven, and who were counted as dead. They had 
no idea of the extent of the disaster, and, as they 
succeeded in escaping themselves, did not attempt 
to return for several days. Finally a search party 
was sent our for them, carrying spades and expect- 
ing to bury them where they were found ; and it 
proved a surprise party indeed for all concerned, as 
the searchers were met by those whom they sought 
on their way home and still very mnch alive. It 
is needless to say that the burial was dispensed 
with in this particular case. Sandstone can boast 
of an attraction which even Barnum hasn't got, in 
the shape of a one-eyed pig that somehow or other 
got out of his pen and into the river. His com- 
panion was literally roasted alive, but "Paddy," 
as he is called, escaped, and he is now a privileged 
character and the pet of the town. He has only 
one eye left, but, as one of Sandstone's citizens 
says, "He's no fool of a pig, and he can lick any 
dog in the town." 

The druggist at Hinckley, speaking of the holo- 






216 ANOTHER STORY-SOME PERTINENT EACTS. 

canst, says: "I filled three barrels with water 
and left them standing on the platform of my well. 
After the fire the only thing that was left of those 
barrels was the bottoms, heads and hoops. They 
were barrels that had been water-soaked, and still 
they burned." 

That the Indians of the section shared the fate 
of their pale-face brethren is vonched for by the 
following clipping from a Dulnth paper : 

M Pokegama, Minn., Sept. 7.— A courier brings a 
report that the bodies of twenty-three Chippewa 
Indians, bncks, squaws and pappooses, lie upon the 
baked sands between here and Opstead, a small 
settlement on the eastern shore of LakeMille Lacs. 
They are scattered over ten miles of country, and 
will in all probability prove food for buzzards and 
wolves, as the country where they died is too far 
from civilization for burial ceremonies. 

"The Indians left their reservation two months 
ago and built a hunting lodge along one of the 
forks of Shadridge creek. Chief Wacouta was the 
" big chief" of the party, and he perished with his 
followers. The first body found by the courier 
was that of an infant barely a year old. Then 
came those of two squaws and five children . They 
had evidently turned west when the flames swept 
the forest. A ride of a mile brought him to a pile 
of ashes, which marked the site of the hunting 
camp. 



ANOTHER STORY— SOME PERTINENT FACTS. 217 

There was one tepee, the shriveled raw hide 
thongs marking the place where it stood. Around 
it were the ruins of a half dozen birchwood bark 
shanties, and protruding from the ashes were the 
fused barrels of rifles and shot-guns. Then for five 
miles the pathway was lined with charred bodies. 

Pokegama Lodge, Knights of Pythias, which is 
located at Pine City, deserves honorable mention 
forthepartit played during the great calamity. 
As has already been stated, the ground floor of the 
hall belonging to this lodge was turned into a 
kitchen and dining room for the use of the sufferers. 
There were nine members of this lodge that were in 
the fire, three of whom were burned to death. The 
lodge cared for the these members, as K. P.'s are 
always cared for, and in addition quite a sum of 
money was raised by the lodge, not only for their 
afflicted brothers, but also for the outside sufferers. 
Dr. B. E. Barnum, Dr. E. L. Stephan, Dr. Cowan 
and John Y. Breckenridge, who have been before 
mentioned as prominent in relief work, were all 
members of this lodge, and not only these, but all 
members of the order did all that was in their 
power for the sufferers. Pokegama Lodge has 
exemplified the teachings of the order, and words of 
praise are heard on all sides from the people at Pine 
City toward the order of Knights of Pythias in 
general and Pokegama Lodge in particular. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



RETROSPECTIVE-A GENERAL SURVEY. 

^TpHE perusal of' the foregoing pages cannot fail 
* to give the reader an impression of the calam- 
ity of which it treats, sad in the extreme; but at 
the same time to those of a more sanguine temper- 
ment, comes a feeling akin to pride, in the realiza- 
tion of the fact, that they are citizens of a com- 
monwealth, which in truth is a government by the 
people and for the people, and that in spite of the 
fact that by this dire calamity whole counties had 
been laid waste and hundreds had been made home- 
less and penniless, their sufferings had been relieved 
in every manner possible by the munificence of 
their fellow citizens, as soon as the combined 
forces of lightning and steam could carry relief to 
them. It brings a realization of " the fatherhood 
of God and the brotherhood of man." No one 
who passed through the fiery furnace and escaped, 
could fail to appreciate the words of one of the fire 
heroes, Engineer Wm. Best, who in speaking of the 
calamity said: '* I'm not much of a church^man. 
We railroad men seldom are, but there's one thing, 
my friend, I tell you, God almighty was good to 
us that day." 

218 



RETROSPECTIVE-A GENERAL SURVEY. 219 

And for those whom we call less fortunate, to 
those that have passed beyond, is it for us to say 
that God in his Infinite Goodness, was not merci- 
ful to them, too ? They have simply reached the 
border that must come soon or late, and it s 
passage was made so quickly they scarcely realized 
their fate. A moment and all was over, a breath 
of that hot gas and they were unconscious, another 
and the soul had passed. This is without doubt 
the manner of death of the majority of the victims 
although invariably the bodies were afterward 
so burned that recognition was impossible. Tbe 
only gratifying feature of the whole horrible affair 
has been the manner in which the whole peo- 
ple responded to the call for assistance. One 
touch of sympathy makes the whole world kin. 
Never was a truism more aptly spoken and never 
was its truth more fully exemplified than in the 
States of Minnesota and Wisconsin in the few days 
immediately following the fire. Almost as one 
man, high and low, rich and poor, capitalists, 
laborers, professional men and merchants, ladies 
who were society leaders and those whose paths 
lay in the humbler walks of life, showed the best 
sides of their natures and contributed freely to the 
fund, which was to be used to aid the sufferers. 
The work was noble, unselfish, quiet and unosten- 
tatious, because the pall fell upon all alike, and the 
people mourned with the mourners, and suffered 



:220 RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 

with the sufferers, because their hearts and minds 
were tonched and they felt that the least they could 
do for their brothers in this, their time of affliction 
was to give from their bountiful store that which 
was needed most and they could spare best. Another 
train of thought which might be followed to some 
length in connection with the fire, is its origin and 
the cause which led up to it, from a scientific stand- 
point. Much has already been written on this 
subject, and whether its origin was electrical, or 
was genera ced through spontaneous combustion, 
or caught in the old-fashioned way it is not in the 
province of the writer to decide; neither will hecon- 
sider the question as to whether the fire generated 
the wind or the wind begot the fire, but is satis- 
fied to say that nothing so terrible in its effects, or 
in its appearance has ever come upon any people. 
Even the description Bulver gives of the destruc- 
tion of Pompeii is not too much to apply to the 
destructive elements of this holocaust in the vicin- 
ity of Hinckley and Sandstone. The loss to the 
section in dollars and cents will never be known 
and is certainly very difficult to even estimate, but 
it is estimated that $12,000,000 will cover the 
total loss to the lumber interests and citizens in 
the section covered by this great fire. This is over 
$2,000,000 larger than the estimated loss in the 
Johnstown disaster of 188), and the loss is cer- 
tainly more wide-spread and effects a class of peo- 



RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 221 

pie more dependent upon what little they had in 
the world, in that they were farmers, and in many 
cases the product of years of toil and cultiva- 
tion, were wiped out and they were left totally de- 
pendent, without even an axe to begin a new life 
with. The loss of life in this case was about one- 
fifth of the loss in the Johnstown flood and the 
contributions for the relief are about one thirtieth 
of the amount received to alleviate the sufferers cf 
the Pensylvania calamity. 

Inasmuch as thisvolume has portrayed the dark 
side of one of the blackest chapters in the history 
of the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin, it is 
only fair that a few pages should be given to the 
brighter side, or the prevailing conditions in the 
country and a few facts which might prove interest- 
ing to prospective residents of the garden spots of 
the world. 

In the rush to the prairies beyond ; the great and 
varied inducements Minnesota offers to home- 
seekers, investors and promotors of industrial en- 
terprises have been strangely overlooked. The im- 
pelling motive that led the early settlers to seek 
the prairies of the far west and the Pacific shores 
left no room for scrutiny of the fertile areas they 
were passing over. Besides the extensive tracts of 
rich alluvial lands along the many rivers and 
around the innumerable lakes and the countless 
mill streams, affording perpetual water.power for 
manufacturing purposes, there are in addition im~ 



222 RETROSPECTIVE — A GENERAL SURVEY. 

mense areas of mixed timber and prairie lands 
dotted over with never failing springs, lakes and 
running streams of pure clear water to entice tha 
stock-raiser, wool-grower, gardener and all, who 
wish to engage in any line of diversified farming. 
With a healthful climate all the year round, every 
variety of soil for all the products of garden and 
field, with excellent transportation facilities and 
convenient markets, there are all the factors that 
contribute to the health, comfort and prosperity 
of the industrious settler. 

There are millions of acres in the state now to be 
had at from $2 to $5 per acre, on eighty acres of 
which any industrious man could make his family 
comfortable and independent, after enduring for a 
short time the toil and privation incident to the 
making of a home on unimproved land. In a few 
years at the rate at which desirable land is being 
occupied the present splendid openings will be no 
longer within the reach of the incoming home- 
seeker. With its delightful climate, health, excel- 
lent water, cereal crops, grasses, wealth of 
minerals, stock raising capabilities, unsurpassed 
timber, an industrious peaceable people, this great 
grain, stock and dairy country, Northern Minne- 
sota, offers unparelleled attractions to all classes 
of immigrants. 

Many people in the east have little or no idea of 
the true conditions of life and the accompaniments 



RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 223 

of civilization to be found in the west. The preva- 
lent conception of eastern people is of Indians in 
native garb and reckless cowboys with an absence 
of the comforts of civilization and law and order 
of settled communities. They are surprised to be 
told that civilization in many respects is in a more 
advanced stage in the west than in the east. 
Many small towns of Minnesota can boast of 
electric lights, electric railways, telephones, tele- 
graphs, water- works, libraries and a fine class of 
public, commercial and resident buildings, un- 
equalled in towns of similar size in the eastern 
states. The western man quickly hears of what is 
new in science, religion, literature or business, as 
he is vigorous, intelligent and quick to move; he 
has adapted and is using the eleetric force to light 
and heat his house and propel his railways, the 
power of steam to plow his fields and thresh his 
grain before these improvements are generally em- 
ployed in similar ways in the east. Owing to the 
rapid growth of settlement his live newspapers, 
churches, schools, societies and the desirable social 
conditions are soon established. 

One of the first things thought of by a man who 
contemplates removing his family to a new 
country is the facilities for educating his children. 
No doubt many have been deterred from settling 
in the west by a groundless fear that the newly 
settled district would not have the educational 



224 RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 

advantages, religious privileges and pleasant sur- 
roundings that they would desire and conse- 
quently have turned aside to less desirable regions 
farther south. As far as Minnesota is concerned a 
few facts will dissipate this fear. This state has a 
permanent school fund $11,508,800, This rich 
endownment is more than double that of any 
other state in the Union, Kansas and Texas, ex- 
cepted, and very much larger than either of these 
alone. No state in the Union has a more compre- 
hensive school system, embracing common schools 
where the rudiments of all branches of education 
are taught, high grade schools, normal schools for 
the education of teachers, an agricultural college 
and experiment station ; a University and Medical 
Colleges for iDrofessional training, and the deaf, 
dumb and blind are taught whatever modern skill 
or science can impart. These institutions have 
ample pecuniary aid and are under charge of 
teachers who will compare favorably with those 
of any other state. The permanent fund of the 
State University is considerably over one million 
dollars, and in number of students ranks third 
among the universities of the United States. The 
annual revenue for the support of the schools of 
the state is $3,700,000. The above list does not 
include denominational universities and colleges of 
which there are a large number. There is proba- 
bly no state in the Union that pays more for the 



RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 225 

support of all classes of educational institutions 
and none pays it more cheerfully than Minnesota. 
No state makes a more generous provision for its 
public schools or has a more complete and effective 
system ; and among the attractions of this state 
and the inducements it holds out to intending 
immigrants none are more worthy of attention 
than these facilities for popular and religious educa- 
tion. 

There are over five million acres of free govern- 
ment lands in the various counties of Northern 
Minnesota still unoccupied, and the Northern 
Pacific, St. Paul & Duluth and Great Northern R. 
R. Companies offer over two million acres of land 
for sale at prices ranging chiefly from $2 to $6 
per acre and on easy terms . To the rich and varied 
resources of the state combined with its healthful 
cl|mate is due its rapid advancement in population 
and wealth. There have been 1,328,336 acres of 
government lands taken up in the past three years 
and the remaining five million acres may be ex- 
pected to be appropriated in the near future. 

Three important river systems have their source 
in Northern Minnesota, the Mississippi, the Red 
River of the North and the St. Louis and other 
streams flowing into Lake Superior. This posi- 
tion of Minnesota at the head of the waters, so to 
speak of the continent, is typical of her com- 
mercial and industrial situation. 



226 RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY 

Northern Minnesota consists of diversified tim- 
ber and prairie lands interspersed with innumer- 
able lakes, streams, and natural meadows. Many 
charming locations can be had by the shores of the 
sylvan lakes and on the banks of the clear running 
streams. All the grains, grasses, vegetables and 
small fruits of temperate latitudes grow in profu- 
sion, and the convenient markets of St. Paul, 
Minneapolis, Duluth and Superior, and many 
prosperous towns throughout the state afford 
ready sale for the products of the forest, farm and 
garden. To those who wish to engage in general 
farming, stock-raising, wool-growing, dairying, 
gardening, poultry-raising, bee-keeping or the rais- 
ing of small fruits no more attractive or suitable 
region can be found than Northern Minnesota. 
The woods abound in game and the lakes contain 
the finest varieties of fresh water food-fish, compris- 
ing black and rock bass, lake trout, white fish, 
muskallonge, pickerel, pike, perch, catfish, and 
wall-eye pike. The climate of the state is health- 
ful and invigorating. The summers and autumns 
are nowhere more delightful. The dry pure air 
mitigates the summer's heat and modifies the 
winter's cold. The climate has for years been 
remarkable for its beneficial effects on consump- 
tives, more particularly the pine forests regions of 
the north. 1"!;? n^i'irtcrc-i'P Is^lic rofjOTiP rr!"! 



RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 227 

every summer multitudes of visitors who are in 
quest of health, recreation and enjoyment. 

The recent extensive forest fires have accom- 
plished for the settler what would otherwise 
require years of unremitting toil. Over large areas 
of fine agricultural country have the fallen timber 
and underbush been completely cleared from the 
surface, leaving comparatively little to be done by 
the settler to prepare the ground for agricultural 
operations. This is eminently true of extensive 
areas along the line of the Northern Pacific and 
St. Paul and Duluth Railroads. 

PINE COUNTY. 

This is the county in which the effects of the 
great forest fires were most severe. It occupies an 
especially advantageous position being nearly 
midway between St. Paul and Duluth at the head 
of the great lakes. The county contains 1,400 
square miles of land and has twenty-six lakes 
within its borders. A large number of streams 
flowing into the St. Croix and Kettle River, one of 
its largest tributaries, drain all parts of the county. 
It is not as its name implies a pine country for 
two-thirds of its surface is covered with a fine 
growth of maple, oak, ash, elm, hickory, birch, 
linden, aspen and other hardwoods. The surface 
is gently undulating and rolling and hilly adjacent 
to some of the larger rivers. Lumbering up to the 



228 RETROSPECTIVE- A GENERAL SURVEY. 

present time has been the leading industry, but 
since the fine agricultural resources of the country 
are becoming better known rapid progress in set- 
tlement may be looked for. A fine quality of sand- 
stone is found along the Kettle River, and the 
quarrying and shipment of stone gives employ- 
ment to large numbers of men. In most of the 
county there is a fertile black soil about one foot 
in depth, underlaid with a reddish gray subsoil 
of clay. Wheat, oats, potatoes, garden vegeta- 
bles, small fruits, etc., yield bountiful returns. 
There are 122,340 acres of free government land 
awaiting settlement, and there is much cheap rail- 
road land belonging to the St. Paul & Duluth and 
Northern Pacific Railroads. Two railroad lines 
traverse the county and the advantageous location 
of this region to markets renders it an inviting one 
to prospective homeseekers. The farmer, stock- 
raiser, gardner, horticulturist, dairyman, or those 
who wish to raise small fruits or poultry will find 
in this county inducements unsurpassed by any 
other portion of the United States, and to the in- 
dustrious a comfortable living, and early compe- 
tence is nowhere more assured. 

The present population of the county is 6,000 and 
the principal towns are Pine City, Hinckley, Sand- 
stone, Willow River, Finlayson, Rutledge, Sturgeon 
Lake, Partridge and Kerrick. 

The "Lake Park Region" largely comprised 



RETROSPECTIVE —A GENERAL SURVEY. 229 

in counties of Becker, Otter Tail, Douglas and 
Wadena is the most picturesque and romantic 
portion of the state. It consists of beautiful 
undulating prairies interspersed with groves, 
lakes and fringes of forest trees, the timbered 
areas becoming more frequent and densely covered 
as the higher portions of the region are reached. 
Very much of it is an intermingling of wood- 
land and prairie, and in considerable areas there 
is little undergrowth, and large black oaks 
with widely spreading tops stand far enough 
apart for the thick growth of grass to thrive be- 
neath them, giving the locality the appearance of 
a well kept park. This feature gives it the name 
of "Park Region." In the wooded district there 
are occasional marshes partially covered with 
growths of cedar, tamarack, cranberries or wild 
rice. No more perfect pleasure resorts are to be 
found in any part of the world than are afforded 
by the beautiful lakes of this region, embowered 
by groves and possessing the park-like features 
already described. This was the veritable para- 
dise of the Indian, and it is scarcely less attractive 
to the civilized men of to-day. It is the ideal 
country for a home. Its waters and forests are 
full of life. The soil will produce liberally every- 
thing that the farmer wishes to raise and reward 
his industry with a (plentiful harvest. Wheat, 
oats, rye, barley, peas, flint-corn, timothy, the 



230 RETROvSPECTIVE — A GENERAL SURVEY 

clovers, vegetables and small fruits yield bountiful 
returns. Nowhere is the natural herbage more 
abundant, botanists have enumerated about 150 
species and varieties of native grasses among 
which the most prevalent are blue-joint, northern 
red top, timothy, white clover and meadow oat 
grass. 

The soil varies from black sandy loam to clay 
and sand in places. The cutting and hauling of 
cordwood, railroad ties, poles, pile timber, staves 
and wood fibre and pulp for paper manufacture 
furnish employment to large numbers of men and 
teams during the winter season. Settlers of 
limited means can in this way do much to support 
themselves and famiiies while establishing a home, 
and those on timbered lands in the neighborhood 
of saw mills and railroads can clear their farms 
free of cost. - Many are also employed in the ex- 
tensive iron mines and lumber camps gf the north- 
ern counties. 

In the " Park Region " all conditions are favor- 
able for the raising of cattle, horses and sheep. 
The grasses are nutritious, the pastures are green 
all summer, hay is abundant, the numerous lakes, 
ponds and streams afford pure water to every 
farm, and the dry crisp cold of the winter is con- 
ducive to health in the animals. They do not run 
down during the winter months as they do in wet 
and changeable climates. Of almost every indus- 



RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 231 

try pursued in Minnesota an equally favorable 
account can be rendered by the inhabitants of the 
" Park Region." Even corn, which is supposed to 
flourish best in warmer latitudes can be cultivated 
successfully here. 

There are several million acres of government 
lands yet open for homesteading free under the 
United States land laws in the Lake Park Region 
and in Aitkin County. The Northern Pacific Rail- 
road Company also offers for sale over one million 
acres of land in these districts at prices ranging 
chiefly from $2 to $5 per acre and on five years 
time if desired. 

Among the towns of this region may be men- 
tioned Brainerd, Detroit, Wadena, Perham, Fergus 
Falls, Lake Park, Park Rapids, Motley, Verndale 
and Aitkin. 

AITKIN COUNTY. 

This is one of the newer agricultural counties of 
the state, and little more than one-hundredth part 
of the more than one million acres included in the 
county is under cultivation. The soil consists of a 
sandy loam with a clay subsoil, and the surface 
was formerly mostty timber with the exception of 
some fine meadow land in various portions of the 
county. The recent forest fires swept over more 
than a third of the county leaving many cleared 
areas inviting to the settler. The forest portions 



232 RETROSPECTIVE — A GENERAL SURVEY. 

consists of belts or patches of pines and other coni 
fers, alternating with areas of deciduous trees; 
maples, the ashes, ironwood, oak, basswood, elm, 
and poplar, the pine prevailing in the northern 
part. Considerable sugar and syrup is made in 
the districts where the sugar maple abounds . 
Cherries, wild plums, strawberries, currants, goose- 
berries, blueberries, grapes and cranberries are 
abundant. There are numerous beautiful lakes 
well stocked with whitefish, bass, trout, pickerel, 
pike, sunfish and other varieties. Half of the 
magnificent sheet of water known as Mille Lacs is 
in this county. This lake has an area of about 204 
square miles and is deep with clear, pure water and 
gravelly bottom. Its waters are so clear that ob- 
jects fifteen feet below the surface may be plainly 
seen. Its banks are high and firm except at the 
south end where Rum River issues from it. There 
ishaidly a lake in the world of similar size that 
affords so many beautifully residence sites on its 
shores or better facilities for boating and fish- 
ing. The county is well watered by nume/ous 
tributaries of the Mississippi, and is crossed east 
and west near its central portion by the Northern 
Pacific R.R. which own 95,000 acres of land within 
its boundaries. There are also 96,000 acres of 
free government land awaiting occupancy. Con- 
sidering its advantages this county offers superior 
inducements to settlers. The principal towns are 



RETROSPECTIVE— A GENERAL SURVEY. 233 

Aitkin, McGregor and Kimberley. Other villages 
and postoffices are Attica, Libby, Hickory, Malmo, 
Nichols, Portage and Wealtchood. 

Northern Wisconsin is greatly diversified in stir- 
face consisting of heavily timbered pine uplands, 
lakes, rivers and tamarack swamps. As Lake 
Superior is approached, the country becomes more 
rugged, the shores of the lake being picturesque 
and beautiful. No better trout streams are found 
on the continent than these which enter Lake 
Superior from the Wisconsin shores . In Washburn, 
Sawyer and Bayfield counties are numerous lakes 
abounding in nearly all varieties of fresh water 
fish. Wild game, including deer, moose, partridge, 
grouse, bear and occasional cariboo are found in 
the woods and geese and ducks are very plentiful 
on the lakes in their season . Like Northern Minne- 
sota, Northern Wisconsin is the paradise of the 
hunter, trapper and fisherman, and its soil and 
timber has many attractions for the farmer and 
woodsman. 

In the counties mentioned above there yet 
remain 144,287, acres of government lands open 
for settlement. There are numerous prosperous 
cities and towns in this region, among which are 
Superior, Ashland, Bayfield, Hayward, Shell Lake 
and Barronett. Lumbering operations are very 
extensively carried on and the farming communities 
are rapidly extending. 



FINIS. 



For particulars regarding lands and other 
data of interest to a person contemplating invest- 
ment or removal to the Northwest, application 
can be made to Mr. Wm. H. Phipps, Land Com" 
missioner of the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, St. Paul, Minn., and full information con- 
cerning the country will be furnished them . 



APPENDIX. 
LIST OF PERSONS WHO ARE KNOWN TO BE DEAD 



John G. Anderson 
Mrs. John G Anderson, 
Charles Anderson, 
Emily Anderson, 
Mrs. Cora Abbey, 
Albert Abbey, 
Floyd Abbey, 
Lloyd Abbey 
John Burke. 
Burke's father, 
James Beon, 
John Best. 
Mrs. Eva Best* 
George Best. 
Fred Best. 
William Best. 
Bertha Best. 
Victor Best. 
Nels Eck. 
Andrew Edstrom. 
Edstrom's mother. 
Mrs. Erickson's friend. 



Miss. Annie Truttman of 
Diamond Bluffs Wis., 
visiting with Bests. 
William Costegan. 
Mrs. Effie Costigan, 
Effie Costigan, 
Irma Costigan, 
Myrtle Costigan, 
Jennie Costigan, 
Billy Costigan, 
Hazel the baby. 
David Cain, 
Mrs. David Cain. 
Mike Currie, 
Mrs. Mike Currie. 
Tom Corbett. 
Louis Chambers, 
Pat Fitzgerald. 
Mrs. D. Donohue; 
Mary Donohue. 
Katie Donohue. 
Esther Donohue. 



APPENDIX. 



Mrs. Pat. Fitzgerald. 
John Fitzgerald, 14, 
Mary Fitzgerald, 13. 
Patsy Fitzgerald, 12. 
Mrs. Nelson Frick. 
David Frick, 10. 
Fred Frick, 8. 
John Frick, 6. 
Richard Frick, 4. 
Mrs. W. Grissinger. 
Collie Grissinger, 10. 
Mable Grissinger, 8. 
Nathan Hopkins. 
Mrs. N. Hopkins. 
Mother Hopkins; 
Sister Hopkins. 
Louis Nelson. 
Peter Johnson, 35. 
Mrs. Annie Johnson, 31. 
Annie Johnson, 12 
Tom J. Jones, 40. 
Alfred Johnson, 29, 
James Kelly, 43. 
Thomas J. Lowell. 
Mrs. Thomas J. Lowell. 
Esther Lowell. 
Chester Lowell. 
Mrs. Lind, Skunk Lake. 
Four children of Mrs. Lind. 
Mrs. Betsy Nelson. 
William Nelson, 
Otto Olson. 
Three children. 



William Ginder. 

Mrs. Wm. Ginder, 

Willie Ginder, 9. 

Jennie Ginder, 9, 

Winnie Ginder, 8. 

James Gonizar. 

Emma Dolvan, 24. 

Belle O'Brien, 20. 

Annie Wallace, 28. 

Henry Hanson. 

Mrs. Clara Hansen. 

Ed. Hanson, 32. 

Mrs, Ed. Hanson, 29. 
Annie Hanson, 18. 

Hilda Hanson, 6. 

Edwin Hanson, 4. 
Jessie Hanson, 8. 

Mrs. John E. Hanson. 
John McDonald. 
John J. McDonald. 
Mrs. Jas. McNamara. 
John McNamara. 
James McNamara. 
Michael McNamara. 
Mike Murphy. 
H. W. Mathiason. 
Mrs. M, Mathiason. 
Baby Mathiason. 
Ida Mathiason, 9. 
Emma Mathiason, 7. 
Hilda Mathiason, 5. 
Martinson's Child. 
Mary Nelson. 



APPENDIX. 



Four Children. 
Peter Peterson. 
William Penoyer. 
John Rogers, 39. 
Mrs. John Rogers, 36. 
Mary Rogers, 4. 
Maud Rogers, 2. 
Baby Rogers, 7 days 
Chris. Rustin. 
Mrs. Chris. Rustin. 
Three children. 
Paul Schlanow 26. 
Mrs. Karine Stjerpka, 29. 
Mrs. Noble Sherman. 
Romazo Sherman. 
Leslie Sherman. 
Johnnie Sherman. 
Flora Sherman. 
Fred Sherman. 
Mrs. Fred Sherman. 
William Sherman. 
Bina Sherman. 
George Sherman. 
Earl Sherman. 
Ralph Sherman. 
Old Tom, 56. 
Anton Weigel. 
Mrs. Anton Weigel. 
Girl 4 years. 

Mrs. Thomas Westby, 34. 
Sophie Westby, 8. 
Samuel Westby, 3. 
Louis Wold, 34. 
Alfred Wold, 12. 



Gustave Newstrom. 
Mrs. G. Newstrom. 
Two Children. 
Maggie Nyberg. 
Dennis Riley. 
Mrs. Dennis Riley. 
Tom Riley. 
Jamie Riley. 
L. Reynolds. 
Mrs. L. Reynolds. 
Three children. 
W. Richetson, 58. 
Mrs. W. Richeton, 58. 
John Robinson, 44, 
Mrs. John Robinson. 
Three children. 
Otto Rowley. 
John Ross, 
Mrs. H. Paulson. 
Joseph Stromberg. 
Mrs. Joseph Stromberg. 
Charles Stromberg, 21. 
Oscar Stromberg, 13. 
Albert Stromberg, 11. 
Mary Stromberg, 9. 
Augusta Stromberg, 6. 

Stromberg, 22. 

Mrs. Geo. Winretter, 24. 
Thomas W T estby, 38. 
Tom Westby, 10. 
Ginder Westby, 5. 
Baby Westby, 1. 
Mrs. Louis Wold, 30. 
Ida Wold, 10. 



APPENDIX. 



Christ. Wold, 6. 
Grand father, Wold 62. 
Mrs. John Westman, 32. 
Mrs. Westland, 25. 
Her sister and child. 



Child 1. 

John Westman, 36- 
Child Westman, 2. 
Sophie Waski, 29* 
Baby Waski, 1. 



Fred Molander. 
Two children. 
Mrs. Chas. Anderson. 
Oscar Olson. 
Mrs. Olson, St. Paul. 
Thomas Raymond 
Three children 
James Barnes. 



POKEGAMA DEAD. 

Mrs. Fred Molander. 
Charles Anderson. 
Three child reen. 
Nora Olson: 
Charles Olson. 
Mrs. Raymond, 
Erick Larson. 
Mr. Whitney. 
David Goodell. 



PINE CITY. 
Sandy Henderson, 13. John Henderson. 12. 

ACTUALLY IDENTIFIED. 

Axel Hanson, Bill Nesbitt, 

Tom Dunn, opr. Dennis Riley, 

Jerry Crowley, Mrs. Martinson and 

five children who were drowned. 

WISCONSIN'S DEAD. 



Alex Erickson. 

Williams. 

Maggie Bargron, 25. 
Mrs. Tawney, 26! 
Walter Graft, 18 months. 



Theophile Bedard. 
Frank Bargron, 30; 
Isaac Tawney, 4/1 'i 
Elisha Tawney, 6. 
Willie Tawney, 13. 



Jessie Tawney. 4. 




a 



